


When Forged By Fire

by Akrximay



Category: One Piece
Genre: Canon Universe, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Possessive Behavior, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-04-05
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:20:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 36,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23501479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akrximay/pseuds/Akrximay
Summary: Zoro suddenly finds himself in a situation that he'd never thought could happen to him. The crew got split up, he's stuck on an island with only two other people and then the damn News Coo brought with it the worst possible news. He had to help, there was no way he could not do something, but when the power doesn't lie with you, you have to take the best deal you can get. At least it would help him save Ace.
Relationships: Portgas D. Ace/Roronoa Zoro
Comments: 23
Kudos: 90





	When Forged By Fire

**Author's Note:**

> Guys that summary sucked but oh well. I've been working on this for a while now and it was supposed to be a gift for one of my best friends, I'm sorry it's so late! I've been tweaking this and still didn't feel like it was perfect but it was now or never, so here it is. This is set after the crew got separated in Saboady Archipelago. Please enjoy the story and leave kudos and comments! There are some deleted scenes at the end too!  
> p.s. I have no clue what AO3 is doing with my formatting so I'm sorry for that!
> 
> ~May

Trying to open my eyes was one of the hardest things I had to do in my life right now, and I couldn’t even manage it. Slowly, groggily and in a lot of pain, I groaned as I turned over to lay on my side, my chest heaving for air with effort. Everything hurt: my skin tingling, my bones aching, my throat dry and raw, and my fucking head absolutely pounding. Even with all that, I knew I had to get up so slowly I pushed myself up onto my hands and knees, trying to remember what happened to me in the process.

I felt the drip of something wet on my hand first, and it prompted me to open my eyes fully against the harsh sun, even with the insistent assault the throbbing in my head had on my senses. When my vision cleared from the bright light and the somersault everything in plain of sight decided to take ended, I saw the small red drop against the tan of my bruised and battered hand, and all I could do was stare at it. Within seconds, the single, small red dot multiplied with plops and drips of larger splats of blood joining it and what wasn’t a big concern turned into a splattering of blood covering my hand. Quickly, I tried to shove my other hand to my temple, where I thought the source of the bleeding was, only to discover I could hardly move my arm.

I finally turned to look at my body to see myself in a bloody mess, not exaggerated in the least. I was still wearing the same clothes I’d had on when I was with the crew in Sabaody and I had to wonder wha-

A sudden realization dawned on me.

I’m not dead.

What happened to the crew?

Luffy!

Usopp and Nami! Oh no. Oh no. What happened to them?

SHIT! Robin, Chopper and where’s Brook and Franky or even that shitty cook Sanji.

Where am I in the first place, and why didn’t that warlord just kill me?

I have to get back.

**I have to get back.**

**I HAVE TO GET BACK!**

I tried to stand up, but my body wouldn’t move very much. I was able to push myself back onto my knees and spotted my swords a few feet in front of me. Okay, first the swords and I’ve got to find out where I’m at, and then find a way to back to Sabaody. I pressed my free hands into my hair and rested my head heavy in them in a way to calm myself and try to stop that fucking pounding.

“That’s a pathetic way to struggle Roronoa,” I heard a deep voice come not too far from me. I swung my gaze over to the large and imposing figure seated on a slate of broken stone. Without having to think about it, I used everything I had left in my body to lunge for my swords; this man would kill me in a second without them.

It took no more than a breath and he had me pinned to the floor, a hard and unforgiving knee pressed harshly to my lower back, a black booted foot stretched in a show of grace and strength to crush my outstretched hand underneath it, a strong hand pulled at my hair tautly and a small dagger pressed dangerously to my throat. My breath came out ragged and in harsh puffs; I was trying my best to stay calm and keep myself under control but my racing heart, and rushing blood betrayed me.

“I appreciate your spirit, but in the shape in which you are, you are no threat to me even with your swords. Now if you’d calm yourself, I can release you and maybe treat your wounds while you tell me how you came to land on my island,” the man said as calmly and smoothly as the devil.

I thought quickly what the best option for me was but there wasn’t very much to think about, even though Nami and Sanji say I’m a moron, I knew there wasn’t much for me to do in this case. Mihawk could have killed me while I lay unconscious at any time he wanted. Hell, he could have killed me already but he didn’t move another inch while he waited for a response, and as he said, I wasn’t even a threat to him. I was practically dying already; bleeding out and exhausted as I was, plus I needed information on what happened to everyone else. The only option was to surrender.

“Well, Roronoa?” Mihawk asked patiently. I only grunted to acknowledge his statement and he took that as agreement considering he removed the dagger from my throat and moved to crouch in front of me, his huge figure looming over me and honestly, I’d never felt this small in my life. The man was gigantic.

“Why would you help me?” I managed to get out with a sneer pulling at my lips. It was at that moment that I realized that talking hurt my throat even worse, my voice quiet and even almost cracking with the effort of speaking.

“You’ve perked my interest from the moment we met, and I am a curious man. I would like to know who was capable of pushing you to such an extreme and how you came flying and crashing onto my once quiet home,” Mihawk answered simply.

“You’re willing to help me because of that?” I couldn’t help but ask suspiciously. A small grin crept onto the man’s face as he looked down at me.

“Well, that and if you’d help me with a recent pest I’ve acquired,” he said cryptically. I paused again to assess the situation and from his amusement, I gathered that whatever this pest was wasn’t going to kill me, so I nodded at him. The small grin on his face never faulted as he tilted his head up in what was what I assumed to be a smug winning expression.

He stood up then and grabbed my swords, slipping them into his belt loop and secured them in place. I sneered at him openly as he turned back around to face me and the amusement laden on his face increased knowing I absolutely hated him touching my swords. He then walked towards me and told me not to make a fuss. I was confused for a second until he slung me over his shoulder, very fucking literally, with surprising ease.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” I growled out at him, though I didn’t start flailing, that’d just embarrass my manhood even more.

“You’d prefer that I drag you in your current condition?” he asked, knowing I wouldn’t respond, actually preferring the ground to the man’s shoulder but torn seeing as it’d take longer for me to recover.

“I thought not,” the smug bastard said, and all I could do was try to make myself heavier as he carried me.

A week later and I’m sat here with Perona hanging off me and my jaw hanging in shock. I’d gotten over the initial shock and disbelief of warlord Kuma saving us, so I figured the rest of the crew were fine and making their way back to Sabaody but what Mihawk just told me threw all of those thoughts away.

There was no way Luffy hadn’t heard and knowing Luffy he would never let this happen. I had to leave now. I had to go help him because he was going to get himself killed if he was by himself. The rest of the crew would focus on getting back to Sabaody, back to the Sunny, back together but _Luffy_ , he wouldn’t even give a second thought about jumping into this war.

“I have to go,” I found myself saying. Both Perona and Mihawk reacted, though both in very different ways. The gothic princess started chattering my head off, shaking my arm almost out of the socket while Mihawk only raised an eyebrow, both of them wondering why I had gone so pale and started going into a panic.

“This is important news to you?” Mihawk asked. The man’s curiosity and nosiness knew no limits.

“I have to go. Ace is my captain’s brother and Luffy would never let the Navy do this. He’s going to get himself killed trying to save Ace,” I said as I stood, Perona, having stayed in place in the two-seater couch we’d been sitting in, frozen by shock. I grabbed my swords and fastened them to the spare change of clothes Mihawk was able to find around the castle that fit me. Perona couldn’t believe the news, her eyes getting ridiculously large and the color leaving her face while Mihawk’s eyebrow drew closer to his hairline.

“While that does certainly explain a few things about your captain and the rest of your rambunctious crewmates, I can’t allow you to leave this island,” Mihawk told me. I turned to face him, I couldn’t believe he’d just prohibited me like some child.

“I’m leaving. I’m not going to let my captain and his brother be killed when I can go and help them,” I stood firmly in what I said, squaring my shoulders, my jaw taunt with stubbornness.

“And please tell me what it is you’ll be accomplishing by rushing to your captain and his brother’s aid. It will only serve to be your death all the much faster,” the grand sword master said.

“If I was scared of death, it would have been pointless being born a man, Mihawk. Luffy is my sworn brother; he is my captain, and I am his first mate. That is a bond that nothing else compares to and I am not about to betray that bond now,” I tried to explain to the man rationally though it was difficult for him to understand. He had no crew and never had one, and when someone hadn’t had that bond before they could never understand.

“And if I told you I’d kill you before you even took a step out of this room?” he asked. The air in the room shifted and Perona was suddenly in the corner, knowing this might come to blows. The cutting glare I gave him was deadly serious and the nearly silent ‘clink’ from Shusui’s blade cracking from its hilt was a very clear and deadly signal that I wouldn’t be taking that threat passively, were it to happen.

The room was very still then in the next few seconds, nothing and no one dared to move or even make a sound.

“Very well Roronoa, if you are determined to die on your way then go ahead. Though I think my alternative would interest and benefit you much more than leaving as you currently are, what do you say? Would you like to hear it?” the very confusing man said after those few tense seconds.

What in the ever-loving fuck this man was thinking at any given moment was anyone’s wildest fucking guess, but I’d at least hear the crazy fucker out. With that, Shusui gave a resounding ‘clack’ as hilt once again met with sheath.

“Perona would you be so kind as to make us some tea?” he asked her in an almost too polite voice. The threat to leave the room now and not return for a while was clear as day even for the thick-headed, goth headache. She left quickly not even daring to leave one of her specters in the room to eavesdrop. 

It had been two weeks since that conversation with Mihawk, and I was never regretting it more than I was now. That bastard didn’t have to come back to this retched island; he could have done whatever he’d pleased while out at sea, and I had no clue anything had happened. It was just a week ago that the News Coo had dropped a newspaper on this stupid out of the way island, and I was going crazy with dread about what was going on, though I wouldn’t let that bigheaded Perona catch on. I had spent days exercising and training off the stress of not knowing.

The last thing that was said was that Ace’s public execution was going to be the next day, the Whitebeard pirates still hadn’t made a move and that there was pandemonium going on inside of Impel Down. There wasn’t much information on that last bit of news, but all I could figure was it had something to do with Luffy and I couldn’t hope enough that nothing bad had happened to my crazy captain.

Today, the News Coo was supposed to drop the damn newspaper, but it still hadn’t passed by. Mihawk was also supposed to be arriving soon, but he still hadn’t shown up either; my bet was on the damn News Coo but the fucker still was-

SMACK!

I look up to see the News Coo flying away smug and with a satisfied face as though it knew what I was thinking. I flipped it the bird- HA! Take that, the bird to a bird!- and quickly picked up the newspaper before Perona had a chance to pop up out of fucking nowhere and steal it from me as she’d picked up the habit just to annoy me.

Unfolding the rather thick pamphlet, I found the information I was looking for quickly since it was plastered all over the front page. It read:

**_Fire Fist Ace’s Miraculous Disappearance!_ **

_The famous criminal “Fire Fist” Ace’s public execution was supposed to be held last week in the center of Marine Ford. Many were in attendance, some to watch, others to carry out the sentence and some to stop it! Though they all got a big shock when the time came, and Fire Fist was nowhere to be found. That didn’t stop the Navy and their allied Shichibukai from trying to do their jobs in stopping all the pirates that showed up to the square._

_The Whitebeard Pirates were in attendance, with their captain at the forefront of their forces along with many of their allies. Also in the mix was none other than Fire Fist’s younger brother and one of the Generation of the Worst, Straw Hat Luffy along with over 200 escaped prisoners from Impel Down! The young Luffy, just hours before the execution, tried to save his brother from Impel Down where the pirate was being held and though didn’t save the Whitebeard commander from the Navy then, managed to successfully lead the escape of prisoners from the steadfast and inescapable Impel Down!_

_Straw Hat Luffy had many allies the Navy was unaware of, including Trafalgar Law, another member of the Generation of the Worst, and even two former warlords, Jimbei of the Sea and Crocodile, that aided the young pirate in the fight against the Navy. While others will try to cover up what happened at Marine Ford, it was nothing short of a war which concluded with many marines and pirates dead, others caught, most escaped and lastly the Navy with their goal of executing Ace unfulfilled._

_The most shocking of all was Whitebeard’s death and the announcement of the One Piece treasure left by Gol D. Roger, which has renewed the flame for the “Pirate Era,” which some had claimed to be fizzling out. Some say that Whitebeard’s influence on the world is more than it was before, and the former Division One Commander, now voted captain by the rest of the crew, Marco the Phoenix has taken command of the crew and is continuing right where Whitebeard left off…not going anywhere!_

_With all this going on, no one expected the heavily injured Straw Hat Luffy to return to Marine Ford just days after all the fighting but he sure did! He seemed to have done a funeral at sea procession and even mourned those lost in the battle though whether it was meant for the many that died or his brother that suddenly disappeared we may never know what Straw Hat knows! We managed to take a picture of the rowdy pirate in a very still and somber moment with his signature straw hat over his chest._

Then it showed a picture of Luffy surrounded by marines with Rayleigh in the background, his eyes closed and hat over his chest. I knew then and there, there was a catch to the picture. If Rayleigh was with Luffy, and he’d even gone through all the trouble to do a funeral procession, even if he had no clue if Ace was alive or not, there was something more to it. Quickly I ripped the page of information out of the newspaper and folded it small and neatly put it in a pocket sewn into my obi to make sure nothing happened to it and to figure out what Luffy was trying to tell us later. Once the paper was hidden away safely, I breathed a sigh of relief. Luffy was safe, and the worst had passed and now I’ve just got to wait for Mihawk.

It was in the dead of night two days later that I woke up. The castle was quiet as always but I couldn’t shake off the sense that something was off, so I got myself ready to face the day, knowing I wasn’t going to get back to sleep any time soon and made my way out of the room. I let my feet take me wherever my body seemed to want to go, which usually led me in the right direction, and never one to let my instincts go to waste, I listened.

After minutes of walking, I ended up at the small dock I watched Mihawk sail off on weeks before. It was a clear night, and I could see the moon’s light shining on the waves and I decided to sit at the edge of the small pier to just watch the waves pass under my feet for an indefinite amount of time. I happened to look up after a while and noticed immediately the fog rolling in on the water’s surface, and I knew instantly what it meant. I’d seen it before, and it wasn’t a sight I’d be forgetting any time soon.

Within moments, Mihawk’s coffin-shaped raft with two green-flamed candles, a single black sail, and a single-seat roiled closer, looking like it was floating more on the fog than the ocean’s waves. I stood as the coffin boat pulled close to the dock and Mihawk stood seeming to have just woken up as he stretched his neck and shifted his shoulders. The warlord elegantly moved from his unbalanced boat to the steady deck of the pier and towered over me.

“What are you doing here?” he asked curiously.

“I woke up and ended up here. What happened?” I quickly got to the part I wanted to know the most.

“Tie her to the deck and open her. Make sure to close her before you come back to the castle,” was all the man said with a straight face before he turned and headed in the direction of the castle. I watched him until he disappeared into the darkness, not understanding why I had to be the one to deal with his ship or why I had to unload whatever he brought back with him, but I found myself doing it anyway.

I finished tying the coffin boat to the deck with a strong, solid rope before opening it, the lid surprisingly heavy for the feeble looking thing. With a lot more effort than I’d like to admit, I was able to open the lid and gaped stupidly at what lay inside. I didn’t know what I expected when I made that deal with Mihawk, but I didn’t think it was going to be this.

I was staring down at the most wanted man in the world right now. Portgas D. Ace lay unconscious and battered inside of the coffin boat. Though he didn’t look to be bleeding or dying, he did look pale and weak, smaller than he actually was and the seastone cuffs on his wrists probably had something to do with it. I shook my head at the sight of this strong and reliable guy who was like a brother figure to those in the crew who’d met him being this weakened.

Careful not to jar the man too much, I lifted him out of the coffin boat and draped him across my back; his cuffed arms around my neck and my arms going under his legs in an effective piggyback ride that he would never know about, and I will never admit to in my life. I closed the coffin boat up, grateful to her for having carried my friend here safely and turned around to head back to the castle.

I kept my eyes firmly locked on the building, determined to make it there within the hour and not to get lost in the forest at this time of night. Not just because of the damned apes that seemed to want to rip my head off at every fucking chance they got but because Ace needed help, and the only other people on this island were in that building. I already made the deal to save his life, I had to see this through to the end.

I didn’t make it back to the castle within the hour. It was closer to two, but either way, it was an improvement over when I was navigating for myself. I managed to get Perona to help me fix Ace up once I was able to get the seastone cuffs off him. I can only assume Mihawk didn’t explain what was going on to the previously condemned pirate and took advantage that Ace couldn’t do much to fend him off and shoved him into the coffin boat. I don’t know how long he’d been in there or how much he knew but judging by the weight of that lid and the still in place cuffs that it had been a while. Mihawk most likely left the cuffs on so that the rebellious man didn’t burn the coffin boat in the middle of the ocean and therefore killing them both.

Ace still hadn’t woken up, but he looked better than when I picked him up out of the boat and in a MUCH better situation than he was in the previous week. Though how happy he would be to learn about everything that happened, I’m not sure. He’d probably take the death of his captain horribly; l was feeling guilty for having to tell Ace and pushing the already weakened man to the very edge. I also didn’t know how he’d take being stuck on this island for a while with a warlord, an annoying ghost girl and me with no way to leave for the moment.

I had no idea what the man was going to do now. If he was going to go back to the Whitebeard pirates was hard to say. I know if our situations were similar and by some fluke, horrible accident I let Luffy die, not that the death of Whitebeard was Ace’s fault, I wouldn’t go back. I was only ever going to follow Luffy, and there was just no way that I could ever follow anyone else. I’d rather die. The crew was my family, but Luffy was the glue that kept our random and strong-headed bunch together, without him we couldn’t function. I felt that Ace was similar, but people did crazy things. Maybe he’d just roam around. He seemed a bit of a free spirit anyway, which is the way I met him, roaming about.

Though he’d had a cause and mission at that point, he was looking for Blackbeard. Would he continue to look for the man, or would he give up on that? Would he want revenge? Argh! All this stupid thinking makes my head hurt! Fuck this, how did Robin and Nami do this shit all the time?

I’m just gonna have to wait until the man woke up and ask him then. I looked towards the said man from my seat next to his bed as if he was going to wake up right then and answer my questions. I knew he wasn’t going to but it didn’t stop me from staring at him as if it wasn’t creepy to sit here day and night and if it wasn’t obvious enough, I wasn’t leaving his side. What if Perona did to him what she did to me when I woke up in the castle?! I was wrapped as a bandage bear for fuck's sake! Stupid _cretin_.

Still looking at the man, I could now see the differences between him and Luffy, but there were similarities too. They had the same nose and eyebrows, though Ace had a spattering of freckles across the bridge of his nose where Luffy’s was clear as marble. Their mouth shape and eyes were different, Ace’s were a bit sharper in comparison to Luffy, the fact that Luffy never gave a shit about anything besides his nakama was probably a factor as to why Ace seemed a bit mature in the face too. Ace had a much more defined jaw too, Luffy’s was softer because he had a rounder face, but Ace’s was stronger, and it fits him well because he was such a big guy.

The man’s whole image seemed to match who he was. His hair was as messy as his attitude, and his refined features matched his random, and always underlying, bouts of seriousness, while his usually in-place grin was as big as his fucking appetite. That shit must run in the family because honestly, the D. family from Gol Roger to Dragon was ridiculous. _Anyway_ , the most Ace-like thing about him was his power because the burning inferno he could command matched his passion to a T. Just like Luffy, he was impressive when he was fighting, always in harmony with his power.

“How long was he in the coffin?” I asked out loud when I felt a presence behind me, knowing immediately that it was Mihawk since Perona’s loud ass mouth would be heard from three hallways over.

“About a week,” came the simple answer. Mihawk didn’t move from his position by the door, and I didn’t move from my position in front of Ace. Though the man saved him per my request, it didn’t mean that he wouldn’t kill Ace out of some sick kick to see how I’d react; Mihawk already explaining that he loved watching my reactions.

“How’d you save him?” I asked him, my curiosity too much to not say anything.

“The only way a swordsman can. I simply cut the ships into pieces before they even knew what was happening, I grabbed him before he sunk into the ocean, and he’s been unconscious since,” the man explained as though it were the most obvious thing. Who the fuck would imagine that someone would cut five fully armed Navy battleships into pieces within seconds and save one person out of, probably thousands, from drowning? A fucking lunatic might.

“The whole time?” I asked suspiciously. Ace’s fists were bruised and swollen, his knuckles looked like they could be fractured, most likely from pounding against something. Mihawk raised an impressed eyebrow and gave a slightly more appreciating tilt of his head in my direction.

“He thrashed around a bit the first two or three days, he’s been like that after tiring himself out,” he reiterated what he meant and that answered the question of how much Ace knew of what was going on. Not a damn thing. It was quiet for a few seconds before I sighed heavily and asked the question I already knew the answer to.

“Now?” the determination could be heard already seeping into my voice.

“Yes,” Mihawk’s usually serious and almost monotone voice rang through the room. I turned in my seat to look at him, his signature expression firmly seated in his features.

“I’m not moving from this room,” I told him firmly.

“I am curious to know what your captain did to inspire such fierce loyalty in a man such as yourself,” the man said with that same straight expression on. All I did was stare at him, letting him know that’s one story he wouldn’t be hearing. Mihawk sighed at me if it was at my stubbornness or his dissatisfaction I don’t know or care.

I stood up walking toward him and kneeled at his feet, my hands grabbing my knees hard, knowing what was going to happen next was going to hurt.

“Shall I pick which one Roronoa or would you like to pick?” he asked grabbing my hair and pulling my head back to look up at his towering figure.

“Hurry up,” I sneered at him with a glare that could kill paired with the snapped response. I wasn’t gonna give this sick bastard more satisfaction with this than he was already getting.

“Very well then,” he remarked quietly, pulling out the small dagger he had around his neck. I never once looked away from him as he brought it down to meet its target.

It was a few days later, and Perona wouldn’t stop fussing about. Though she acted as though she didn’t care, she didn’t leave me the fuck alone for more than a few minutes after she showed up to a bloody mess the other day in the room Ace was staying in. I remember her walking into the room a couple of hours after Mihawk left and flipping out once she passed the doorframe.

She’d freaked out about my blood-soaked clothes and my still bleeding wound and the trail of blood I’d left on the floor and chair I was sitting in.

“What the FUCK happened here?” she asked in her shrill voice. I pulled my gaze from Ace and glanced up at her from the corner of my eye to give her a very blank look.

“Nothing,” I answered shortly, turning back in front of me to watch the rise and fall of Ace’s chest. I was going to make sure this man lived, because he was Luffy’s brother but more importantly because he’s my friend.

“If you’re going to lie Zoro, try to be a little less obvious that there is something wrong with you, dip shit!” she said and quickly moved around the makeshift infirmary to find something to stop the bleeding.

“You need to clean up, go shower and put this on it after you get out. Hopefully, the bleeding will stop,” she told me even as I gave her a deadpan look.

“Go! I’ll watch him,” she said earnestly, and I believed that she would look after Ace if just long enough for me to shower. I sighed and stood, feeling a bit lightheaded but not showing it in the slightest, I probably should have tried to stop the bleeding a while ago, but I just couldn’t find the energy to.

After that Perona had patched me up and now would not shut up or leave the room. I’m surprised Ace could sleep through her grating voice screeching throughout the room the whole day.

“Witch! Shut up! I can’t sleep when you won’t stop talking! Fuck, you’re worse than that shitty cook,” I tried to get some peace and quiet by telling her. She just glared at me while floating out of the room grumbling about ‘asshole marimo’ and ‘starve to death’, I was just glad she stopped passing those ghosts through me. If I had to deal with my own terrible pity party one more time, I was going to go insane. I watched her leave with a sigh and looked back at where Ace was now lying on his side on the bed.

He started moving in his sleep, which made me think he was feeling better. He’d been dead to the world, still and quiet the first three days he got here and now on day seven, he looked more like Luffy when he slept. I’d wake to find him in weird positions or drooling or mumbling to himself in his sleep. I thought he’d wake up soon, but he still hasn’t; I sighed again and closed my eye to get some sleep of my own. I felt like a fucking stalker just staring at him for days on end without moving, but I was going to make sure he woke up.

With that thought, I felt my mind wander and sleep take over. _I’d only take a nap, I’ll wake up in a bit,_ I thought to myself. The next time I felt myself stir was a while later and I felt that it was longer than the nap I’d planned. I straightened in my chair and glanced at Ace to make sure he was still okay when I jolted at what I saw.

The man was sitting up in the bed and looking out the window on the opposite side of me. At hearing the movement, he turned his gaze to me, and I couldn’t breathe. He seemed to glow like a burning fire. The setting sun hit his hair at just the right angle that it seemed to spit flames around him, his dark eyes seemed to glitter and his freckles were highlighted. I couldn’t move an inch, the image of him had me dumbstruck and as still as a stone.

“You’re from Luffy’s crew,” he said, his voice rough and a bit hoarse from disuse. He tilted his head a bit as if he were thinking before his eyes widened a fraction and a grin crossed his face.

“Zoro, right? It’s nice seeing you again,” he greeted cheerfully. I was still silent just watching the man’s actions, in actuality not able to say anything just yet. After clearing my throat loudly, I finally worked up my voice to say something.

“Yeah, good to see you’re awake,” I said only a bit awkward. I knew that he was going to wake up, I just didn’t think I’d be so awkward when he did.

“Soooo, I’m still alive huh?” he asked in an obvious way. He wasn’t expecting an answer and I already knew that, but I couldn’t help but answer.

“Yeah,” was all I said. Fuckin’ way to go Zoro, such a smart fucking response.

He sighed and ran his hand through his hair, the strands rifling through his fingers as they carded through the silky-smooth looking mass. He put on a small smile, a grateful looking smile, and turned to me again.

“Well, where’s Luffy? I know that little bastard must be excited to see me again,” he said with a charming grin and cheerful voice. I closed my eye, not knowing how to even start informing the man of everything that had happened in the almost two weeks that he was asleep.

“Luffy isn’t here,” I started with a bit of awkwardness and frustration. His smile fell a bit in confusion, and his head tilted in the same way it had earlier as he waited for me to explain. I wasn’t suited for doing this kind of delicate shit. Fuck it, Ace was a man.

“A lot of shit happened. You’ve been out almost two weeks, and I’m shit at explaining things so here,” I said as I shoved the folded newspaper I’d gotten days earlier in his face from the pocket I had it safely tucked away in. Ace flinched backwards as the paper was shoved in his face and slowly took it and unfolded it neatly, looking up at me curiously before planting his eyes on the words.

Ace smirked and chuffed as he read through the article and even shook his head in amusement in what I could only think was Luffy’s actions. It was about halfway down the page when the flame man’s smile fell completely, and his mouth hung in shock. Tears were starting to well in his eyes even as he continued to read. He let his hands fall into his lap when he’d finished, silent tears streaming down his face to land on the thin piece of the article below them. He turned to face me, still shocked and questions ready to fall from his lips.

“I’m really sorry about Whitebeard, and I hope that he’s finally going back to being with the sea,” I told him. I have no idea where the words came from, but they seemed right to say at that moment remembering briefly that Ace mentioned back in Alabasta that Whitebeard called everyone children of the sea. His eyes seemed to soften, and his tears slowly stemmed as he looked at me. I knew I probably wasn’t the best person to be comforting him at the moment, but I was glad he was alive and at least had somebody he knew nearby when he learned about all this.

“He once told me that he couldn’t wait to be one with the sea but that he still had sons he had to take care of, so he’d wait a bit longer,” he commented with a small sad smile pulling at his lips.

“I guess he felt his job was done,” he finished his thought and suddenly wiped at his face fiercely.

“You aren’t angry?” I suddenly blurt out. I mentally face palmed because I knew it was insensitive to ask, but my dumbass couldn’t help the words that blurted from my mouth.

“I know my father wouldn’t want me to feel sad, angry or guilty, and I learned my lesson once about listening to what he was trying to tell me. I didn’t, and all this mess happened so instead of feeling angry or guilty that everything was my fault, I’m going to forgive myself and take his lesson and carry on his name,” he said determinedly.

He surprised me because I thought his temper would go off, his emotions everywhere and his heartbroken. Though I think his heart was still broken, the maturity he showed and the acceptance of the whole thing was not what I was expecting. It made me respect him even more.

“So, if Luffy isn’t here, then how am I, and why are you?” he asked, his voice still rough. I know what he said but I knew that he was still going to take things badly, so I didn’t comment on his watery tone.

“It’s a long story,” I told him not sure I wanted to explain the whole thing about the crew’s separation. The subject was still a bit touchy.

“Great, I’m starving and would love to hear about it,” he said, not letting me get out of the situation. I sighed because I could tell that dealing with this man was going to be just as difficult as dealing with Luffy, they just take different approaches.

“I’ll get you some clothes; you need to shower. It gets colder at night, so you should _actually_ wear the shirt I give you. While you do that, I’ll go find some food,” I told the man leaving the room to find some of the clothes that Mihawk had given me that were too big seeing as Ace is taller than I was by a few inches.

I found Perona’s annoying ass along the way through the castle and told her to take me to where all the food was coming from in this stupid place. She, of course, gave me a hard time and finally figured out that Ace was awake when I said I needed a lot of food. At that point, she excitedly decided to be helpful, wanting to ‘finally meet the famous Fire Fist’. Her fangirling was a load of shit and got old fast, but I didn’t complain since she was finally being useful. I ended up carrying all the food, which wasn’t the easiest thing to do considering it was a lot of food.

When we got back to the room, Ace was looking along all the books and things on the tons of shelves in the room he’d been staying in. The tall man turned around to see all the food, his stomach giving a loud growl while his eyes lit up. When I put down the huge sack of food I’d been carrying around, he was finally able to spot Perona who decided to hide behind me, suddenly nervous. Ace politely introduced himself and even gave her a bow, thanking her for putting up with and taking care of both of us.

“Horo-Horo-Horo it’s not me you should be thanking, I’m staying here as a guest too, though I do most of the work here,” she said trying to be cute. She kept playing with her hair and tipping her head, blinking her eyes way too many times trying to appear innocent. I rolled my eyes at her actions, knowing that this was probably the reaction Ace got out of most people who weren’t scared of him.

“Well I guess I need to thank whoever owns this place, but I think I’d better do it in the morning because I don’t think I’m going to be able to stay awake too much longer,” Ace said with a stretch and big yawn. Perona swiftly said her goodnight and left but not before asking if Ace had everything he needed in an effort to please him. I stood up too ready to follow her out of the room so Ace could eat and go to sleep when my wrist was caught in an iron tight grip.

I turned to look at the man, his hand so hot I thought he’d used his power, but he was just staring at me intently.

“Sit. You’re not getting out of telling me that long story you mentioned earlier,” he said firmly.

“You said-” I started but was cut off quickly.

“That was just to get her to leave, she was starting to get annoying,” Ace said as he let go of my wrist, pressing himself into the mountain of pillows he’d found while I was gone looking for food and settled in to start eating. Honestly, I didn’t even think there were that many pillows in this castle. I sighed and moved to sit in the chair that hadn’t been moved from earlier, rubbing my wrist unconsciously. It was cold now that Ace had let go of it.

“Well we’d made it to Sabaody and things just went to shit from there,” I started the story of everything that happened since then. I explained to him everything, not leaving out the parts of me getting injured or even trying to protect the crew when I couldn’t even protect myself. Usually, I’d keep all the facts about me and anything that could be seen as weaknesses about me to myself, but I could trust Ace, he was nakama, and his sharp gaze would cut through me when I’d try to skimp on the details.

“Then I woke up here on this island and Mihawk let me stay until I could leave on my own,” I told him.

“Mihawk? As in Dracule Mihawk, one of the seven warlords?” Ace asked me when the man’s name was mentioned.

“The one and only,” another person’s voice resounded through the room, and I couldn’t help but tense up. I hadn’t heard the man approach, and I didn’t sense his presence until he spoke; Ace just glanced up to the doorway a slightly guarded look on his face, but he put a friendly smile on within a few seconds.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Ace said pleasantly moving to get out of the bed but stilled when Mihawk held his hand up.

“No need to stand, I know you are still recovering,” Mihawk said as he approached the bed. Ace extended a hand and the two shook.

“It is nice to meet you under better circumstances as well,” the tallest man said. Ace tilted his head again, I can only figure it was a tick of his, and his brows furrowed.

“Under better circumstances?” the injured man parroted. Mihawk raised an eyebrow as he turned to me in an obvious inquire.

“I thought Roronoa would have told you what happened already,” the tallest man commented.

“I didn’t get a chance to get to that part of the story,” I said in a quieter voice. I didn’t know how to tell Ace the reason he was here on this island, so I thought I’d skip over the details but I knew the other would catch on quickly, so Mihawk coming to explain that part may have been a good thing.

“Well then, Ace-kun, I would ask Roronoa how he got that injury on his eye and the reason for it that should clear up all the misunderstandings. I’ll leave you to rest, I came only to see what all the commotion was about,” Mihawk said and with a slight uptilt of his head he turned and left the room.

I swear that man existed only to make my life harder. He could at least have explained the situation for me, so I didn’t have to suffer through it. It was kind of embarrassing and feeling Ace’s smoky dark orbs on me I closed my eye in resignation and waited for him to ask the question instead of just offering the answer.

“What’d he mean?” he asked in a serious voice. It was very few occasions I’d heard the man use that tone but just hearing it sent shivers through me. The man was usually cheery, carefree, reckless and just as wild as his younger brother so to have him serious was…different. Even the subdued and watery voice from earlier was more Ace-like than this seriousness.

“Mihawk was the one who saved you from the Marines,” I told him hoping the news would remove that stern look in his eyes while he looked at me or soften the intelligent sharp glint to them but no such luck.

“Why would a warlord I’ve never met decide to save me? And what does it have to do with your eye?” Ace asked, directly to the point. He was too much like Luffy and too different at the same time, I couldn’t get a handle on him. I sighed heavily and scrubbed a hand down the side of my face in frustration, the other clenching tightly to my swords in an unconscious effort to comfort myself.

“When I heard what was going on, Mihawk told me he’d been summoned for your execution, he said he’d be arriving just before you on the day it was going to happen. I knew what that meant for Luffy if you died. He would have gone crazier than he already is, he’d do something stupid, he would get himself killed. I couldn’t let them kill you for his sake and because you are part of our nakama. I was going to go help in the war to save you, but I couldn’t move much apart from walking,” I started to explain. I could tell the man had already pieced everything together, but he was going to let me struggle with all the words I had to say. This was the fucking reason I hardly ever talked to people. I suck with words, and people are too fucking difficult. I sighed again and continued what I was saying.

“Mihawk wouldn’t let me go and I couldn’t let him stop me so instead we made a deal, it was the price that I had to pay for him to save you. I didn’t think he would bring you here though,” I said, raising my hand to barely touch the edge of the wound. I’d uncovered it the day after Perona patched me up when it stopped bleeding and let it dry naturally. I could never use the eye again, but it was a small thing to pay physically, what was worse was the damage to my pride.

Ace’s brows furrowed closer together as he moved to the edge of the bed coming closer to get a better look at the scabbed-over wound. I backed away as he invaded my personal space in an uncharacteristic show of being uncomfortable, usually, the closeness wouldn’t bother me, but with Ace scrutinizing me with his eyes the way he was, it made me nervous. The man wouldn’t let me escape too far though and grabbed the back of my neck to keep me in place while he examined the injury.

He was close enough to feel his breath on my face, and I internally squirmed wanting to put distance between us but tried to stay still on the outside, a straight face plastered on me as he pushed his fingertips where mine had been not a moment ago. He released me after a few long seconds and looked into my remaining eye.

“You shouldn’t have done that, you won’t ever be able to use your eye again,” the man said quietly, guilt seeping into his voice.

“The eye is nothing. I wish he would have stabbed it out, but he left something worse, so don’t worry about it,” I told him trying to put the man at ease but knew I said something I shouldn’t when his focus on me intensified.

“What’s worse than leaving you without an eye?” Ace asked with a bit of harsh, biting tone to his question. I didn’t flinch when his eyes seemed to smolder in anger.

“The scar it’s going to leave,” I answered him simply with a stronger voice than I thought would come out. The anger left his eyes and only the inquiry was left, this time I came forward with the answer without him having to ask.

“To a swordsman putting scars on another is having skill and dominance over the other person, to get scars is to shame yourself and show your lack of skill, your submission to another person. There is a difference between what Mihawk and I did for this scar. It was an exchange, my eye and having to stay here a year for your life. It would have been better to stab it out without the scar but now everyone will think he’d taken it because he has more skill, and right now he does but that isn’t always going to be true. I’m going to make sure everyone knows it too when it happens,” I told him with a stubborn determination that could be felt in the room.

Ace looked like he was trying to understand the thinking, but it was hard to comprehend if you didn’t live by the sword. It was like Mihawk trying to understand the loyalty I had to Luffy or the reason I followed the crazy bastard, it was something you had to get inherently, not logically.

“So, you’re stuck here for a year?” he asked after a moment, deciding not to push further with the injury.

“Yeah, I have to stay here with him to train but I have to get back to the crew. We were supposed to meet back at Sabaody in three days and I’m late, Luffy too but still. I have to figure out what he was trying to tell us,” I mumbled the last part more to myself than to him. He tilted his head again and asked what I meant.

I explained to him the picture in the paper and how I just knew that it meant more than what it seemed, but I just couldn’t figure it out. Ace looked at the photo no more than a few seconds and he already found the answer.

“What does 3D2Y mean? Luffy never had that on his arm before,” Ace said as he kept looking at the picture. He turned his face to look at me and showed me the picture when I gave him a confused look. I saw what he meant when I looked at the photo again. Luffy had a 3D2Y on his arm with the 3D crossed out in the middle. I furrowed my brows in confusion again as I looked back up at Ace again.

“The fuck if I know,” I told him. He rolled his eyes at my stupidity and looked back at the picture. Ace’s eyes widened a bit and started to say, “Didn’t you say you had to meet your crew back in 3 days? If 3D means 3 days and it’s crossed out then 2Y means-,”

“Two years,” I said in realization, cutting the man off midsentence.

“Looks like you have a longer time to stay than you thought,” Ace said as he looked at me. It was around then that he started to get sleepy, he was still recovering after all. Even though the scrapes and bruises he’d come with were all but gone by now he had been in the seastone cuffs for what had to have been weeks. There was no way he didn’t still feel drained after all that time and with the fighting, rough handling that guards were sure to have done and with no medical attention, he was still a while away from being okay once again.

I left him to sleep and get some rest, telling him I’d check on him in the morning which resulted in a very childish ‘You aren’t my moooom,’ to be called behind me as I left the room. I rolled my eyes at him but couldn’t help the grin that pulled across my face.

Ace asked me the next morning if there was a spot outside that he could light a big fire, which had me a bit confused but eventually I told him there were plenty. I followed him around as he looked for a spot he liked, having nothing better to do and to make sure those apes didn’t attack him was a decent way to kill time. I was passive as I watched the man look for and eventually come to a spot in the corner of a broken stone building that was propped up in just the right way to be a little nook. I sat down on a bit of building big enough with a higher vantage point than ground-level when Ace said whatever he was going to do would take a while and watched curiously as the man began to strip after piling a bunch of rubble around a makeshift stone alter thing.

I averted my gaze a bit when he glanced at me and winked while I was staring at him, a bit of unusual embarrassment creeping through me. My curiosity at what the crazy man was doing was greater than my embarrassment though, and I turned back to see the man spark a flame, first slamming the stone fixture with a blue hot stream of fire. Once the stone was red hot and the odd bits and ends piled around it started to smolder and light, he then proceeded to light the rest of the pile of fire with a less intense flame. I watched him with my brow furrowed and confusion at his actions; he looked like a ritualistic nutjob, especially as he panted and doubled over in effort. My confusion turned into horror however when he stepped into the burning pile and stumbled his way to the stone fixture in the center of it.

“Ace! **_Fuck!_** ”I called loudly as I stood up. That pile was so hot that I was sweating a good at least 20 feet out. He then proceeded to turn around and wave me off in a way trying to calm me down since there was no way to hear him over all the crackling and snapping of the odd ends burning. My heart rate slowed down a bit when I saw him sit down calmly on the stone fixture.

It was weird and stunning to see Ace in the flames; his whole body seemed to blur in and out of flame form. He laid down comfortably on the fixture, seeming to be in a position somewhere in between stretched out lazily and curled up protectively. I watched some of the still deep gashes on his back steam oddly within the flames and slowly but surely disappear and leave no evidence of their existence. I had to wonder exactly how his power allowed him this kind of thing. I didn’t know his whole body was made of flames too. Was it a state he could slide into? Was his physical body just a shell? Could he walk around as a fire person all the time? The mystery that was Ace just got that much bigger. The recovery was surprisingly quick even though Ace stayed in the flames all day, the fire raging long after there was no rubble fueling it, but I really should have figured Ace had something up his sleeve since he was Luffy’s brother. 

Now a few weeks later he sat on a boulder sleeping in the sun like a cat after he finished laughing at me for getting my ass handed to me by a handful of apes. I was kind of pissed that they never bothered him after the first time he burned one of them to death for waking him up from his nap with a surprise attack. The stupid ape was ash in a matter of seconds, still hanging in midair from the leap it took at Ace when the breeze blew and swept away its remains. Ace had settled back down to sleep after switching positions to get comfortable while oblivious to all the incredulous and horrified looks the very human-like apes were giving him. The creatures never took another glance at the man as he stretched out in every which position as he slept, focusing all their bloodthirsty attention to me.

I usually wouldn’t mind the training, but the apes were strong, really strong, and Mihawk had dismissed me on the day we started “training” saying when the apes no longer bothered me then he’d reassess me and see if I was ready to start training with him. Basically, the fucker told me I’m worthless as I am, and I had to beat some fuckwad monkeys before I was even at the starting line. Well, fuck you too then!

I huffed out a breath as the apes ran off into the forest after they seemingly got bored with me, this happened every day, so I knew they’d be back. Sheathing my swords again, I plopped myself down onto the floor of the destroyed ruins I’d been using as my training ground. Sweat dripped off me and I was thankful I’d decided to leave my shirt in the castle not wanting it to get stolen or destroyed since there weren’t that many clothes that fit me lying around. I let myself fall back to lie down to feel the breeze ruffle through my hair and soothe my hot skin when suddenly the sun was blocked out from my face.

Cracking my eye open, I saw Ace hovering over me in a very Luffy like way, and I scoffed at the similarity in their behaviors. It still unnerved me how both Mihawk and Ace could sneak up on me, their presence concealed from my perception, mainly because it hardly ever happened to me. I was able to detect most disturbances, even in my sleep, so this strange turn of usual events sent a chill of unsettlement and excitement down my back; excitement for knowing that there were people stronger than me to beat.

“What?” I asked him as he stared down at me with that tilt of his head he always did and a mischievous look in his eyes.

“Zoro spar with me~” he sang childishly to which I quirked an eyebrow because he only used that tone when he was in a really good mood.

I watched him for another second, weighing the pros and cons of wrestling with the fairly muscled and strong man, and in the end, I just went with what I wanted to do. I didn’t answer but yanked his ankle from under him, which sent him sprawling to the floor and moved quickly to pin the larger man under me, straddling him, both of his wrists firmly held in each of my hands and crossed in front of him, high on his chest, near his collar bones, so he couldn’t move easily, and I sat with most of my weight on his abdomen.

“Looks like I win already,” I told him with a smug smirk crossing my lips at his dazed expression. After hearing that though, the man’s full attention moved to me as he stared at my face with a strange expression. His tongue ran across his lips, and I couldn’t help but track the movement, shifting my weight forward, unconsciously, to press down on his arms…that was a mistake. He took that moment I was distracted and off-balance to his advantage.

Ace arched his back, quickly and suddenly, causing me to slip back and land in his lap; he then proceeded to buck his hips, hard. I gasped at the unexpected move and the VERY unexpected bodily reaction I had to it and my grip on his wrists loosened. He yanked his arms away from my grasp easily and flipped us around, my legs tightened around his hips in an attempt to keep myself from slamming into the hard ground, and he pressed his full weight, which was at least 50 pounds more, into me as he lay over me. I was way too conscious of him and the way I could feel every fucking muscle of his front, too conscious of his stupid confident and alluring smirk crossing his lips. I wanted him off now and all I could do was gape stupidly at the speed that he’d turned the situation around.

It happened in literally a second, and I could now see why he was so wanted by the Navy and so respected as a pirate. He didn’t only rely on his power, he had the strength to fight without it, smarts to know when to pick his battles and skills to come out victorious.

“I like the way your earrings clink together when I toss you around," Ace whispered when he leaned down next to my ear, fucking lips pressed to the lobe and breath brushing across it causing me to tense my whole body up.

"Looks like I win,” he spoke again and I felt the slow grin pull across his lips on my skin.

Internally panicking and acting on the instinct to get him off, I planted my right hand on the floor and hooked my right leg behind his knee, I then threw my whole weight into yanking my left elbow up to catch him in the sternum and flip us with the momentum and strength. I heard his breath whoosh out of his lungs as he was knocked back and I immediately stood, planting my two feet in a fighting stance in a quick, fluid, succession of movements. He looked up at me from the floor, rubbing his chest with a crooked grin on his face slowly standing and brushing off some dust from his ass.

“Good move,” he complimented also moving into a fighting stance. The weird atmosphere created by the grappling on the floor disappeared, and we had a good sparing session both out of breath and sweating by the time I decided that I’d lost to him.

I growled out frustrated as I picked myself from the ground. I held my own pretty well, but the man was skilled and strong, and I could now see how Luffy had never once beaten him. Ace’s deep, booming laugh rung out through the area, and I glanced at him with an irritated stare as he stood with his hand on his hips, wide chest puffed out.

“I’ve had longer than you to get as good as I am, you’ll get there!” the man said with a wide grin on his face. All I could do was roll my eyes at him, brushing off the dust that caked my pants and stuck to my sweat coated back. I decided it was time to shower and call the training a day; all my muscles were sore, and I was short of breath and though I wanted to keep going I knew that I’d better rest. I turned on my heels and started to head back to the castle.

“The castle is in the other direction Zoro!” Ace called with a laugh as he slung his arm over my shoulders.

“You really _are_ shitty with directions,” the man said, and I could only sneer at his comment because I didn’t have anything to say in rebuttal. He physically turned me, and we headed in the direction of the castle as the sun was beginning to dip low in the sky, and I could feel my stomach empty and craving food. I could already taste the barbequed, juicy leg of whatever creature Mihawk hunted on this island; the imaginary smell of smoke and flavor of food made my mouth water, and I heard my stomach growl at the moment. Ace arched an eyebrow and grinned in amusement as we continued to walk in silence.

I missed the crew. Thinking of food made me remember that shitty cook and though his personality sucked, I’ve never had food better than his. I missed Nami’s nagging and Robin’s quiet giggles, Chopper’s, Brook’s and Usopp’s ridiculous conversations while Franky yelled at them some random comment, even Luffy’s excited and never-ending chatter and energy; I missed it all. Though they piss me off and drove me batshit insane, I missed them. They are my family; they’re my place to come back to; they’re my place in the world.

I glanced over at Ace as we walked, his hand gripping my elbow so I wouldn’t wander off or something like that, and I was reminded of home. I was glad to have the man here because even though he only spent a short amount of time with us, he was part of our crew, he was Luffy’s brother and that made him similar to my captain in a lot of ways that made me feel at home but he was uniquely his own person and those things that made him were what threw me off my usual game.

I tried not to focus on the heated hand on my elbow and the irritation that flooded me when it left my skin to push open the huge door to the castle. I rolled my eye at myself and headed to one of the shower rooms in the large palace.

“Aren’t we gonna go together?” I heard Ace call behind me in his sing-song voice he used to piss me off. I didn’t even turn around as I threw my hand up with my thoughts displayed in just one finger. Ace’s loud, amused laugh filled the air and I couldn’t help but huff at the shiver it sent down my spine.

I was ready to kick that man’s ass and it only pissed me off more that I couldn’t do it. Though even with how much the man pissed me off, that night I went to sleep in the same room as him, needing to feel a little bit closer to, not only him but, the feeling of being back on the ship with the crew. The last few nights it’d been too quiet for my liking. The loud snoring that reminded me of Luffy and Franky and the occasional mumblings of words that were very Ussop, Brook and Chopper like comforted me more than I’d like to admit and I could feel very distinctly the small smile that settled on my lips as I drifted off into sleep.

Usually, I was a person that didn’t get too involved into other people’s business mainly because I didn’t like people getting into my business, but after weeks of Ace’s being here, as we were sitting on the dock that he’d arrived on, cooling off after another day of sparring, I found my curiosity surge. My thoughts were focused on Ace, as I seemed to notice them do a lot more often as the days passed, and my lips formed words before my mind even formulated a thought to speak them.

“What are you going to do now?” I heard the question in my voice, indicating that I’d asked without meaning to. I looked at the man to hear the answer, no use trying to take it back. Words, just like actions, are one of the few things in this world you can’t take back.

I turned from the sunset we were watching to look at him, expecting him to look back at me but he kept his eyes firmly planted on the watery horizon in front of us. He had such an impatient yet serene expression on his face, his eyes screaming for the touch of the ocean (metaphorically speaking of course) but his body relaxed as he leaned back on the heels of his hands. He sighed as if the question took a lot out of him from just hearing it as he tilted his head back but just enough to where he could keep his eyes barely open, still watching the water.

“I just wanted to be free, you know?” he asked. I think it was a rhetorical question and I didn’t know what to say so I stayed silent and let the man continue.

“I felt so trapped on that small island, bound to one place. I had to leave, to get out, I had to escape and that’s why I became a pirate. If I became a marine like my grandpa wanted, I’d never been free always following orders and shit,” he continued, and I could completely understand what he was talking about. Feeling trapped was one of the reasons I’d left the dojo I grew up in, along with many other reasons, but the biggest was that staying in one place felt unnatural.

“I followed Gol Roger’s footsteps in that regard, and I became part of my father’s crew because I wanted to because he treated me like a son and let me be free like I’d always wanted to be,” Ace said with such a longing and such happiness in his voice that I could feel my heart kind of break for him.

“But my father is gone now and though I am loyal to the crew of the Whitebeard pirates, a lot of them are gone now, I’m sure only the main division commanders and their crews follow Marco under Pops’ name and honestly I could never follow anyone else in my life, no one else can handle me,” he said with a small, sad smile that spoke volumes of the fondness he had of Whitebeard. I had honestly been wondering for a very long time how someone like Ace could follow someone as their subordinate, but I guess that in and of itself spoke of Whitebeard’s caliber of person and leadership.

“I won’t be calling myself a part of the new Whitebeard pirates, I won’t go back to something or someone where Pops isn’t there, so to answer your question, I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Ace finished still not budging his gaze from the ocean.

Some people in this world were meant to do something great, others that were meant to claim land and there are others that were born from the ocean itself and the pair of brothers, Ace and Luffy fell into the last category. They were not themselves if they weren’t on the ocean’s surface, cruising on the deck of a ship and feeling the salty breeze mussing their hair and chapping their lips, hitting their faces and loving every roil of the waves the powerful water had to offer.

“What about revenge?” I asked. I knew I had hate in my heart when Kuina died and I was angry, really angry. I’d wanted to tear down everything in my path and that was exactly what I did, for many years, all I did was train and gain a reputation for myself through fights others picked with me. It wasn’t until I met Luffy that I finally calmed down.

It was at this question that Ace turned and looked at me with a serious expression, one that showed restraint and forced understanding, if a face could even make a “forced understanding” kind of expression that is. That was the message that got across anyway.

“I wanted to at first. I wanted to go tear down Navy HQ and I wanted to kill everyone in that fucking town, I didn’t care who- women, children, innocents- I didn’t give a fuck that night you told me. I tried to keep cool while you were there but that night I was _literally_ burning with anger, I had to put out the sheets at least a dozen times so they didn’t burst into flames,” he said and despite the serious topic I couldn’t help but snort in laughter at the thought of a slightly panicked and angry Ace jumping up from a bed, frantically patting down the sheets. A smile pulled across his face in response to my reaction, the man finding amusement in the fact as well.

“But I saw where that got me the last time I jumped the gun. I was captured, people I cared for were killed and I am alive to regret not listening to everyone that tried to stop me, including my father. Like I told you before, I learned the lesson Pops taught me. I’m not angry at the Navy anymore, or that bastard Teech; they were only doing their job and that fuck face will get what’s coming to him eventually. I believe that with everything I am,” Ace told me and I couldn’t help but feel proud of him. It was the same kind of pride I felt when Nami finally stood up to Arlong or when Vivi and Robin took back what was theirs in life but there was a different feeling to this. There was a tingling in the pit of my stomach and a tightness in my chest that, left me trying to catch my breath with just a little more effort than usual, accompanied that pride.

I didn’t know what to say to him, so I just nodded, and he smiled at me, his eyes shut with the size of his genuine, teeth showing, cheesy smile. That tightness grew stronger and I could feel something in my heart unlocking, something I’d shut away to the whole world until the crew came along. It was really strange for me to feel this way for someone that I hadn’t known very long but I knew I couldn’t let Ace go from that point on.

“Stay,” was the only word I said unbiddenly. The word came out strong and firm and hung in the air longer than I’d intended, though after a few seconds I had to wonder if I’d said it at all. The smile Ace had on his face slowly fell and his smoky, dark grey eyes opened to look at me with a lidded and heated look, a strange undertone of **something** in his look that made that tingling in my stomach return and even spread a bit further south, making me very uncomfortable as I sat, staring back at the man.

“I’m not going to be a part of your crew. I refuse to follow Luffy as a captain; he’s an idiot,” Ace commented, his voice quieter than normal with a rougher and deeper tone to it. It made the hair at the back of my neck stand up and I was forced to turn my gaze back to the ocean, the sun almost all the way hidden behind the horizon.

“Not part of the crew, but maybe part of the ship? Travel with us, you’d be free and to the Straw Hat’s you already are a part of our family. We’d be together,” I told him quietly. I don’t know why I brought up the topic at all and I don’t know where the sudden urge to have Ace travel with us came from but I know the words I said were true and I’d meant every one of them, and if anyone asked me of the growing heat on my cheeks I’d beat the shit out of them.

The man didn’t say anything, but I felt fingers brush my hair, which had grown longer, behind my ear and out of the way of my face. The sudden and strange action making my earrings clink together gently and I jerked my head around, unsure of how to react. We locked eyes and I could feel my heart start to beat much faster than it had been before. The look Ace was giving me was unnerving and I felt my breath cut short as he slowly nodded. He smiled at me carefully as I stared at him, still in a bit of shock, as he spoke again.

“That sounds nice. I’ll think about it,” he said in a calm and quiet tone. I couldn’t explain the happiness I felt when I heard him say that, the extreme surge of emotion was foreign. I couldn’t help the shy smile that grew on my lips and I felt myself lean more into his hand as he’d yet to move it from caressing the side of my face.

“When I thought that it was the end for me, I regretted leaving Luffy’s side. As a big brother, I want to see his dream come true but I felt if I was there he’d think he couldn’t do it on his own, like when he becomes the King of the Pirates it’d be bittersweet because I helped him get there,” he spoke softly. It took me a bit to form a coherent thought, seeing as there were too many emotions whipping around and his thumb that was moving in small movements over my cheek wasn’t helping. I could understand why Ace would think that way but it hurt to hear it from the man himself.

“But Luffy would never see it that way,” I told him in a just as quiet voice.

“He wouldn’t let you out of his sight if you gave him the chance,” I added, knowing it would be just like Luffy to do something like that.

“Maybe its time to make some new adventures together, huh?” he asked with an intense look in his eyes.

“I’m sure that’s what you’re both missing right now…you have time to think about it. We have two whole years on this island,” I answered him a bit unsure of what I was even fucking saying anymore. I moved back a bit, to get his touch off my skin (so I could clear my fucking head a bit) and I didn’t understand why I was lamenting the loss of heat so much.

“Um I mean, I have a while here and, uh, it’d be much better with you around,” I said feeling awkward suddenly. Ace’s closeness was strikingly in the forefront of my mind.

“Zoro,” Ace called my name. A shiver went down my spine at that and I suddenly stood up, feeling the need to escape from the heady look Ace was giving me and moved to head back to the castle.

I could feel heavy eyes practically burning holes into my back, but I didn’t dare turn around, scared of my reaction to whatever expression Ace had on his face. A few seconds later I could feel the heat of his body close to mine in a silent guide, turning me around to head in the right direction. I rolled my eyes at my directionally challenged senses and we stayed in a calm yet slightly tense silence the whole walk back.

It’d been a few months since I was finally able to start training with Mihawk, the damn apes finally leaving me the fuck alone. Ace had stuck around, and it looked like him and Mihawk had a sort of agreement. They would spare occasionally, Ace teaching Mihawk a bit of hand to hand combat and Mihawk showing Ace how to handle his dagger, which somehow got saved along with the man, better. That was all great and shit, them shooting the breeze and being all friendly but when I was getting my ass kicked every day with minimal effort from both of them, it pisses me off! They’d beat me into a pulp, leave me to train what Mihawk told me to improve all bruised and abused and then be all buddy, buddy doing some high level sparing that I knew I’d kill myself a few times if I tried to copy them.

“Fucker! Stay still!” I yelled out as the black-haired man dodged out of the way again. Ace’s booming laugh vibrated the heated air around us where the blast of flame he shot at me just passed through.

“The whole point is for me not to stay still Marimo!” Ace yelled back as another blast of flame came barreling towards me. I felt the small pang in my chest from my old nickname but I’d gotten used to Ace calling me by it. I twisted out of the way of the column of fire and took a quick step with my right foot turning quickly and aimed a backslash with Shusui at the man. The hit landed cleanly or would have if the annoying piece of shit didn’t transform into fire at that moment.

A frustrated growl left me as I pulled back and regrouped a few meters away from Ace. The man looked back at me over his shoulder with a confident smirk and rushed at me, flames spitting out around him. I braced for the impact and sure enough, the metallic slamming of blades against one another came as Ace’s signature dagger was wielded with lightning speed. It was difficult to defend against both his physical and flame attacks, let alone trying to get an attack in but if I could just tr-

Clear as day I heard an annoyed click of the tongue and an exaggerated sigh come from Mihawk who was standing a few meters from us in the small field we were training in. I learned quickly that Mihawk wasn’t one to repeat himself and if you were not quick on the uptake he’d leave until he felt an interest in coming back. I growled to myself again, even more frustrated, and quickly reassessed my options. At that moment I was slammed in the temple by a wildly strong kick sending me flying and ramming right into a tree. Ace stopped moving, as I was slowly getting up, with a worried expression on his face.

“There was a better option than that,” I heard Mihawk say as his boots crushed the grass as he moved towards me. I groaned, rubbing a hand to my temple and sitting up.

“It was obvious that Ace-kun was going to kick because his grip was faltering if you’d have waited for him to shift his weight you would have been able to stop his kick and finish the match in that moment of opportunity,” Mihawk said as he tilted his head to look down at me.

I gritted my teeth, seeing the damn tick he picked up from watching Ace pissed me off and made me want to laugh all at the same time. Now the bastard really did look like an oversized bird, ha!

“How’d you know that my grip was loosening? I didn’t think I showed it on my face or in the force I was pushing at Zoro with,” Ace asked coming closer.

As Mihawk began to explain to Ace how he’d read his moves I was thinking over the moves that Mihawk was talking about. It’s true, I knew Ace’s grip was faltering but I was going to push him back to get his footing off balance. Why the fuck wasn’t that right? Ace’s footing was already off-balance! He was already shifting his weight to spin into the kick so trying to push him further, with Ace’s skill, would have been pointless and he probably would have missed the kick, but he’d have gotten behind me. I can see why Mihawk said there was a better move but how’d he know there was going to be a kick?

I turned my focus back to the two men standing before me and I could feel my annoyance and anger rising. Mihawk was giving Ace a demonstration, but not showing him, no he was fucking manipulating Ace’s body. The warlord was always touching the other under the pretense of correcting a stance or asking questions over particular body positioning in a cool, indifferent way. The flame man seemed to have no problems with the closeness, already seeming like a very physical person anyway, and not being bothered that Mihawk was a warlord or could injury the other easily.

It was a level of confidence that very few could attain, it was the confidence that made him the previous second division commander of the Whitebeard pirates. I didn’t know if it was because he knew that Mihawk wouldn’t do anything to him or if it was the fact that if the man did that Ace had no problems in defending himself against the other as their little, non-serious sparring sessions showed.

I knew that Mihawk knew that I knew what he was doing, and I could tell the other enjoyed irking me immensely. The bastard did it on purpose just to piss me off and what made the situation even worse was I didn’t know why that shit bothered me so much. Ace could obviously take care of himself and there was nothing wrong with the fact that they were both giving the other some pointers, but I couldn’t put my finger on what unsettled me the most.

It could be the fact that Mihawk was looking for shit to do to bother me or the fact that he had taken to doing exactly this kind of shit lately or it could be just how close Mihawk would get to Ace. All I knew was that Mihawk being so physically close to Ace was getting on my fucking nerves.

I swear I’m going to kill him one day.

“I thought this was my training session?” I grouched out as I stood watching them with arms crossed over my chest and Mihawk aimed a sly smirk in my direction.

“Yes, but I must also instruct your training partner, if not your instruction will be pointless,” Mihawk answered smoothly. Fucking bastard. 

“Sorry,” Ace said with a bit of embarrassment, a hand fidgeting with his face in his nervous tick (one he shared with Luffy when the small captain was being lectured by Nami or Sanji.)

I glared at Mihawk once more, because now the bastard had me making Ace feel guilty and turned back to Ace, telling him that it was not his fault. I complimented him on the good hit, and he asked if I was alright.

“I’m fine,” I told him as I turned back to Mihawk.

“Shall we continue?” The man asked smugly and all I could do was give him a disgusted face.

“Yeah,” I grunted, and we went right back into the training.

It was a couple of hours later that I huffed out in annoyance as I continued to watch the two men talking and demonstrating a few stances here and there in the conversation as I finished the last of the 5000 fingertip handstand pushups. It was the last thing I had to do for my cool down for today as Mihawk and Ace had been handing my ass to me throughout the morning and early afternoon and I was ready to shower, eat, and sleep. I slowly put my feet on the ground and let my body roll up naturally stretching out my back and showing off a bit of my flexibility. I caught Ace’s eyes on me as I wiped away some sweat off with a shirt and tilted my head in question. I knew the other hadn’t eaten since this morning and was surprised he hadn’t thrown a fit of hunger yet and figured we might as well all go in to have an early meal since the sun was starting to dip into the far side of the horizon.

Ace smiled and turned to Mihawk, motioning back to the large castle in the background and they both turned in my direction. I could only roll my eyes as my irritation spiked when Mihawk the ever-fucking gentleman gestured for Ace to move first, putting his hand on the flame man’s back. I clenched my teeth together and the shirt in my fist dripped the sweat I’d just put into it as my fist seemed to strangle it on its own.

“Sorry about today, I know that these are supposed to be your training sessions,” Ace told me later that night after his shower.

“No, it was Mihawk pissing me off again like normal,” I replied as he threw himself on the bed. We were still sleeping in the same room even after I don’t know how many months of being on the island, we’d tried sleeping in different rooms, but nothing had felt as natural as hearing his fucking snoring and muttering and shifting while he slept. I didn’t even last 20 minutes of trying to sleep on my own before we’d found each other wandering around the castle the first night we tried sleeping in separate rooms.

I remember when we bumped into each other and neither of us wanted to admit that we couldn’t sleep without the other there. We ended up eating a midnight snack and went back to the original room we’d been staying in.

“I don’t know what makes you so mad about him, he’s a bit blunt but he’s not so bad. Luffy and I are blunt like that and we’re great!” Ace said as he pushed up the pillows around him.

“He is nothing like Luffy or you!” I said suddenly and with a lot of push behind the claim. Ace turned and looked at me with wide eyes which had me turning my gaze to the floor.

“He can never be like Luffy…or you,” I said much quieter this time.

“Never like Luffy huh?” Ace said in a weird voice. I turned my eyes to look up at him in confusion, having never heard him like that before. He watched me for a few more seconds before he laid on his side getting comfortable on the bed, Ace didn’t say anymore after that and went to sleep. I felt a bit odd about it because we usually argued over who go the bed and then sometime in the morning once we woke up, we were tangled together. I just knew that the next morning that wouldn’t be the case.

Ace had been weird for the past week and it was starting to affect my training and the way we interacted. He was quiet and he had a frown pulled across his lips more often than not and let’s not mention he hadn’t smiled at all. Today was a very cloudy day but it still hadn’t decided to rain, though I could smell it in the air. The sky was almost as black as night with the thickness and darkness of the clouds and rumbling booms of thunder going off in the distance (and getting closer as time passed) all morning making me shift in uncomfortable silence.

I’ve been uneasy all week, that strange feeling only getting worse with the days but today it felt like someone turned the dial-up on the Let’s-Fuck-with-Zoro-o-meter. I don’t have a fucking clue if it’s because of Ace’s attitude, the weather or something else. The prickly feeling crawling up my spine and along the back of my neck felt eerily similar to Mihawk’s presence but instinctively I knew that wasn’t the problem. Mainly because I’ve been able to sense both him and Ace when they are near, unlike when I first arrived at the island, and I’ve been able to ignore the bastard’s creepy aura since I learned to detect it.

I eyed Ace as he and Mihawk spoke over a move made with Ace’s dagger and how it would be a more effective move with some slight adjustments. I was still possessive over Mihawk touching Ace but after I cut that ridiculous puffy feather thing off his hat one time after he provoked me a little too much with his Ace-touching that day he backed off. I let my eyes linger on the Warlord a few seconds as I took in his posture, seeing if I was going crazy or if someone else could feel what I was sensing.

I turned my gaze back to Ace once again as he nodded his head at the taller man. That unsettling sensation passed over my body again and I watched as Ace gave the tiniest of shivers and Mihawk straightened up just a bit. At that moment a tremendously vicious and violent ray of branching lightning struck through the sky, taking up most of the visible horizon and lightening up the horizon for a split second. The following boom from the thunder was loud enough that it spooked most of the birds from their perches and the animals in the forest scattered to find a safe place to hide. My ears rung a bit from the outrageously deafening sound, and I turned my eyes to the sky instinctively.

My skin crawled with the power still ringing in the air as I squinted my eyes, trying to see through the clouds. For a second, I thought I saw something among the clouds, and I couldn’t help but look closer putting all my focus on the angry sky with one hand on Shusui’s hilt that sat safely in her sheath. The lightning and thunder now were not letting up and both Mihawk and Ace stopped their instruction and were also watching the sky.

Suddenly I caught sight of something that was moving through the flashing and spontaneous rays of lightning and the rumbling thunder going on in the background. In between the lightning, I caught a flash of bright blue circling above us in progressively tighter circles and I couldn’t help all the hairs on my body from standing on end. I turned back quickly to Mihawk and Ace, a bit unsure of what to do besides prepare for whatever was to come. At looking at them I knew they sensed the impressive presence coming from whatever was now flying at us.

Mihawk seemed calm and not tense at all while Ace seemed like he had just seen a ghost. The tanned man was stupidly pale, and his usually confident eyes were wide with fear and uncertainty. I think the only thing keeping him in one spot was fear because if he could move, I think he’d be booking his shit out of Dodge. Quickly I turned back to look at the, now identifiable, huge bird that was landing in the small space of clearing we were in.

It had to be the prettiest bird I’d ever seen. Its feathers were made of literal fire of the clearest of blues and sunray colored yellows highlighted them in different places while a big mark took up the middle of its chest. It was hard to make out what it was, though it looked familiar. The bird settled comfortably and then made a point to look at its surroundings, then quickly taking note of Mihawk, me and then Ace. It stopped it’s gaze on Ace and in a ripple that ran down its body I watched it transform. It then dawned on me who this bird with the dangerous presence was and I was suddenly feeling…I don’t even fucking know. Marco the Phoenix stood in the place where the bird was moments ago and turned his attention to Mihawk first.

“I was wondering when exactly you lot would catch on,” Mihawk spoke first just as coolly and cockily as always. The Phoenix shifted his eyes swiftly to Ace and back to Mihawk uncertainty and confusion were painted on his face, but never did he give off an air of weakness.

“I don’t know exactly what is going on, but I feel like you have a big hand in it. Should I be thanking you?” Marco asked as he stepped up to Mihawk, shaking hands in mutual respect.

“No. Those who had to pay the price for my help have already done so,” Mihawk said evenly. Marco tilted his head a bit, turning to look at Ace again and then turning his gaze at me. I couldn’t help but step back at the look in his eyes. They were so dark that it almost seemed unnatural and held this laziness to them, that seemed all an act because underneath his razor-sharp intellect was cutting through and connecting the dots. Marco turned back to Mihawk and bowed his head a bit in gratitude but not enough to make the Warlord think he was deferring his position as someone equal to the swordsman.

“Thank you very much for whatever hand you had in saving Ace,” the man said genuinely. Mihawk acknowledged the gesture with a head nod in return and turned back in the direction of his castle walking with a grace that still pissed me off.

“Training is finished today. Phoenix-san, you all are welcome here until your business is finished,” Mihawk said over his shoulder looking at Marco in the eye and with that, the three of us left in the clearing watched until the man was no longer in view and his presence was not felt.

“ _Marco_ ,” I heard Ace’s voice call out shaky, watery and so very quiet I wasn’t sure how it was heard over the impending storm. I turned just in time to see Marco engulf Ace in a crushing hug. Ace clung onto the man’s shirt, hands clenching tightly to the fabric at the man’s lower back and I could see the trembles racking his body even from the distance I was standing at. I yanked around at the stabbing pain I’d felt at seeing that.

I quickly followed Mihawk’s wake and headed back to the castle as quickly as I could, getting away from the personal and intimate moment. I’d never seen Ace like that, never seen him so small and so helpless, not even when I first pulled him from Mihawk’s coffin boat. I’ve never gotten the sense of helplessness from Ace, not even when he’d found out about Whitebeard, or what Luffy was going through.

What really shocked me though was the hope and love in his eyes I saw in the split second before Marco grabbed him. I was an idiot to even think that Ace wouldn’t want to go back to his family when they eventually found him. I scoffed at my stupidity and had to realign myself because I realized then that I had gotten too comfortable with Ace around. I started to think that there was something special, but it was just the loneliness that led me to think that. It could have been anyone that he’d known and been there for him and it would be the same. He is an honorary part of the crew. He is Luffy’s brother. He is _nakama_.

I made it back to the castle in record time, learning the way from our training ground to our home of a year and a half after some weeks of training there, and Mihawk’s residual presence helped. I headed straight to the shower to try and wash away the uneasiness I was feeling at seeing Ace with The Phoenix. I was happy for him and at the same time I was unexplainably sad, mainly because I knew that Ace was going to be leaving soon.

I was going to miss him. He became my home away from home.

It was the little things like his muttering while thinking about something or the sweet, longing gazes he’d give the sky or sea. Or moments like when we’re lying next to each other on the only grassy and sunny spot on the whole island. Or the time we went exploring the island in its entirety to find that spot, and all the days spent just snoozing because Ace’s lazy ass didn’t want to move after eating at lunch.

I blinked my eyes a few times trying to gain a bit of awareness since my thoughts had drifted. I was brought back to the present as the water from the shower was still hitting the top of my head and was running down my back in rivets. I shook my head and straightened my back, already resolving myself to put my feelings behind me to not ruin things with the other and keep my selfishness in check. I thought I’d also become a new home for him but knowing that he had someone he could rely on and a place to call home to again was enough for me.

I got dressed after I’d gotten rid of the sweat from the training and slinked off with a bundle of food, a bottle of rum and finding an unoccupied room in the castle that was far from the room Ace and I usually shared just to make sure not to run into the other if he decided to come back to the castle. The storm calmed a bit through the night and the uneasy feeling I had all week was finally gone, and I could only chalk it up to such a strong crew being in the area. I sighed as I settled into the dusty ass bed with the rum in one hand and Shusui, Sandai Kitetsu, and Wado Ichimonji held tightly to my chest with the other in a ghost of how I used to sleep before I met Luffy. An old friend as I began draining the bottle.

For days I stayed away from the normal haunts of the island and ended up roaming the forest fighting the apes instead of training with Mihawk and Ace. The flame man being busy with his former crewmates and the master of the island not being seen since the day the new Whitebeard crew arrived. Though I was kind of lamenting the missed opportunity to possibly train with Marco the Phoenix, I was glad to be far away from the man. It was a weird feeling for me to be uneasy around anyone and let alone anyone who was more powerful than me. Not that it mattered, if the man picked a fight, I wasn’t one to back off. I just didn’t feel like being around the infamous man.

I huffed in frustration as I tried snoozing under a large, wilting tree as I looked around me. There were apes scattered all across the forest floor in multiple states of injury, none of them could land a scratch on me now and I was kind of happy at seeing my progress blatantly shown in front of me but angry that the only competition left were the people I was trying my hardest to stay hidden from. It was then that the forest became deadly quiet and I slowly prepared myself to launch at whatever strange creature would attack me this time.

I whipped around the tree trunk with lightning speed, pulling Shusui along with the momentum of my pivot, cutting my swing to a dead stop just an inch away from the neck of the creature that was still as a statue. The huge bird only tilted its head in curiosity as it watched me with sharp eyes. I cringed at the sight of it knowing exactly who found me and what’s even worse was I didn’t sense him until it was too late. Unlike the other day where he’d been flaunting his powerful presence today, the Phoenix was quiet as death itself and it unnerved me slightly.

Pulling Shusui back and extending my form back to a normal stance I sheathed the sword and eyed the man cautiously, waiting for the other’s next move. Accordingly, the man transformed back into his human form and casually put his hands in his pockets as he relaxed into a comfortable standing position.

“Hello Roronoa, it is nice to finally meet you, even though I had to come and hunt you down-yoi,” the man said. He was taller than Ace and shorter than Mihawk but now looking at him up close, he was definitely more intimidating, especially when knowing I was the smallest person on the fucking island except for Perona.

“Good to meet you,” I said very shortly even though I had a question lingering on the tip of my tongue. The blonde just stared at me, obviously not bothered by the social awkwardness of the encounter or all the fucking fidgeting I was doing.

“Why’d you come to find me?” I finally asked, not being able to resist or know how else to get out of this situation.

The man gave a small smirk, reasons, and intentions unknown, and he moved closer to me extending a hand slowly for a shake. Hesitantly but firmly I shook the man’s hand and was a bit less cautious when he said, “Call me Marco-yoi.”

I nodded and relaxed a bit asking my question once again, after telling me to call me by my first name, feeling much more like myself at seeing he wasn’t there to pick a fight.

“I just wanted to meet you for myself even though I feel I already know all about you, Ace talks a lot,” he said in a soft, melodious tone. I nodded once to show I heard him and backed away only a bit to gain some distance. At the mention of Ace, I remembered just who it was I was speaking to and decided I was done with the conversation.

“Well I have to get back to training if you don’t mind,” I said briefly trying to leave as amicably as I could.

“From what I saw you were a bit bored, won’t you talk with me a bit or is sighing annoyedly under a tree for another 10 minutes that much more exciting for you? Yoi,” the man asked in such a way that was more teasing than rude, where one wanted to get mad but didn’t have a good founding to do so.

I almost sneered at the man but turned and took a seat back where I had been sitting, the other man taking that as an invitation to sit across from me on a low branch from a close enough tree.

“I wanted to thank you for saving Ace,” the man said quietly after a few long moments of silence. I watched him with intense eyes, sensing he wasn’t finished talking.

“Ace told me how and why he ended up here and why he hasn’t left in the year in a half he’s been here. I also want to thank you for being there for him when we couldn’t,” the man continued, and I couldn’t help my interjection.

“When you weren’t with him?” I asked simply. Marco looked at me again with an amused expression coming across his face once more, replacing the somber one.

“Anyway, I appreciate you coming to thank me, but I didn’t do anything. I didn’t save him, and I couldn’t even be there to help in that battle, your thanks are for Mihawk,” I told him a bit testily. I didn’t know why I didn’t want to feel like I owned this man something, especially since I look up to him so damn much, but I didn’t want his thanks.

“You know he was and still is a brat-yoi. Since the moment he stood up to the captain we all knew Ace was going to be special… to all of us,” Marco spoke carefully, obviously choosing his words wisely. That in and of itself bothered me but I didn’t interrupt the man, wanting to know what he was getting at.

“He worked his way up the ranks and our hearts every single day he’s been on that ship. At first, it was the million and one ways he tried to kill Pops, then the day he got his tattoo and the times we’d have loved him more-yoi,” the man said, and I could see the love and care he held in his heart with every word he said.

I wanted to scoff at his retelling of these events, done with this touchy-feely conversation but at the same time I treasured all the memories shared, imagining Ace in every instance and it brought a small, bittersweet smile to my face.

“But it’s always been a love of family and in the role of a protector and someone to guide him. After all, I was the one who was able to get that firebrat to open up to the Whitebeard crew and in my many, many years of life that fireball is the little brother I am the fondest of yoi,” the man said as he carefully watched my reaction. I tried my hardest not to give out any outward signs of my confusion, knowing he was looking for some kind of reaction. I didn’t know why he was telling me this, but all the information was starting to make my head hurt strangely.

“Next to Pops I was the one Ace always looked to, always acting like a spoiled little kid around me. No one else believes me that he is so damn childish because he’s so “composed” or “wild-looking”, oh I’ve heard “rambunctious” and a “crazy motherfucker” thrown around a lot too but for some reason, “childish” is so fucking unbelievable yoi,” the zoan user said, throwing his hands up incredulously.

“So, in short, you have nothing to worry about yoi,” he finished saying once he’d settled lazily onto the sturdy branch he was on.

I still didn’t know what his plan is telling me this or why I felt like I should have known exactly why he said it all so I sat there looking stupid. Finally, after a few short moments, Marco chuckled and made the short jump to the ground from his literal perch, moving to crouch in front of me and clamped my shoulder in his firm grip, not caring about the previous distance between us.

“Anyone willing to save my little brother has my blessing so relax and let's be friends,” he said and I couldn’t help but return his genuine smile with a small grin of my own, even though I didn’t grasp what he meant by ‘his blessing’.

“Now get yer ass up and stop moping. We’re going to have some fun-yoi!” he said straightening and stretching out a hand for me to take.

We ended up walking toward the beach where they’d docked their ship and there seemed to be a bonfire in the process of being built. I could immediately see where Ace was with his booming laugh and the huge congregation of people, he had around him. Everyone was taking a break from their wood collecting to sit and talk with the flame man around a few piles of food. I rolled my eyes at the typical scene; Ace was never far from food.

In an instant Ace perked up a bit more and looked right at us, his face lighting up at the sight of us and he waved us over. I was hesitant about moving because I just realized I’ll be meeting Ace’s other family without the crew with me. Marco side-eyed me and with an amused huff pushed me forward with a strong hand, walking toward the group himself and expecting me to follow. Not one to back down from a challenge I straightened my back, stuffed my hand in my pockets and trudged behind Marco.

“Marco! I was wondering what you were doing. Hey Zoro!” Ace called as soon as we were within earshot and stood up, moving to meet us.

“Guys! This is who I was telling you about! The first mate of the Straw Hat pirates, Roronoa Zoro,” he told the group that was watching him as he wrapped one of his arms around my shoulders and jostled me around a bit. I barked up at him to watch it but all he did was laugh at my antics and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at his actions. It had been a while since I saw Ace so carefree and happy, so I wasn’t about to hold a grudge for a bit of manhandling.

The group immediately introduced themselves and suddenly I was wrapped up in a whirlwind conversation that was all about me and what I was doing with Mihawk. After an awkward conversation and the mention of Luffy’s crazy ass and what he did at Marineford, Marco stepped in.

“Since we interrupted his training, I guess we could help him out, right guys? How about a rough and tumble yoi?” the Phoenix asked and with a resounding yes among the rowdy crew members, I was suddenly pulled up.

“Since you’re the one that interrupted him today, you go first Marco,” Izo told the lazy man.

“Ehhhh?” was the only thing heard from Marco as Haruta clung to his arm, jumping excitedly up and down making sure the man didn’t run away.

I couldn’t help the excitement that bubbled up in me at the thought of training with Marco the Phoenix. Shaking off whoever’s hands were on me, I grasped my swords and held them a bit tighter in a bid to ease my tension, needless to say, it didn’t work with the adrenaline already rushing through my veins.

It was maybe half an hour later that our audience was getting much louder with their rowdy romping. Marco and I had been sparring hand to hand for a bit, well it was more like he was tossing me around.

“You’ll never get anywhere if you keep taking things easy Zoro,” Marco told me with a still lazy grin on his face. The man not even having broken a sweat. I felt my lip pulling into a sneer and a growl building in my chest. I decided that Marco would be fine as I pulled Shusui from her sheath and put a well-placed slash to get the man to back away a few steps.

He lifted an interested eyebrow and rolled his neck in a satisfying motion. Whoever said this man was lazy was a bold-faced liar. Marco the Phoenix was a beast that loved playing with his prey, and at the moment that was me.

After Marco circled me slowly in a few lazy loops, he decided that he was done assessing me and with showy flames, his arms turned into gorgeous colored wings and his legs turning into talons. For a second I was reminded of that bird girl from Punk Hazard. What was her fucking name? Monty? Monei? In that split-second, Marco slammed me fucking hard with his massive wing and it sent me flying into the crowd. I was dripping sweat and battered but I couldn’t keep the grin off my face and the fact that I’d forced Marco to go into his phoenix form(halfway) was victory enough for me since Ace told me once that he doesn’t show his bird form if he doesn’t acknowledge the person. I tried catching my breath since it was a respite from Marco’s attacks but that didn’t last long at all.

There were jeers and shoving hands that came at me getting me back onto my feet and through it all I could hear Ace’s voice yelling in our direction, “Marco that was a cheap shot! OY MARIMO, don’t let that bird brain beat you!”

“It’s not my fault he got distracted yoi,” Marco said flapping his still transformed arms and landing on taloned feet in that weird humanoid/bird mix. I heard the whole of the new Whitebeard crew whooping and hollering, making bets, drinking and I think I saw a few roasting things using Ace’s back as a grill once the man settled down again. I stopped moving for a second, stuck on Ace’s bright smile, the likes of which I hadn’t seen in a very long time and had to shake my head to physically knock out the distraction.

“Don’t worry, I’m not done yet!” I said launching myself at Marco again and the man only grinned dodging and we were back at it again. Eventually, Marco called the sparring session quits, seeing as I wasn’t going to give up even with the beating I was getting. I huffed a sigh of relief when I was given food and rum and found a barrel to lean against. No one noticed the time nor when Thatch (the new Whitebeard crew’s chef) brought out more food or rum and settle right into the group or when the sun no longer shone, and the moon was in its place high in the sky.

“ACE! Light it up!” One of the group members called out, which sounded suspiciously like a drunken Thatch. I assumed they were talking about the mountain of wood that had been finished being collected during my bout with Marco. At the choir of voices in agreeance, Ace stood up much too steadily for the amount of rum he’d had and hardened his stance as if he was absorbing a blow. He took in a huge breath, to the point I swear his fucking lungs were going to pop and suddenly he let a monstrous, blazing surge of deadly flames. I’m not sure how the heap of wood didn’t disintegrate instantly but it caught flame quickly. Ace stopped pouring out flames since a few of the more overly excited crew members started getting too close to the flames as the energy of the whole group took over them.

It was funny knowing Ace was putting on a show for his crewmates, the man not needing to make such a fuse to light the wood. He reminded me a lot of Luffy, the captain always making a big deal out of simple things just to get a reaction out of people. I huffed out an amused laugh and got a sympathetic look from Marco and Izo who’d taken up seats near the barrel I was leaning on. I shook my head as Ace’s booming laugh was heard along with the hoots and cheers from the rest of the crew members.

No one slept with all the booze the Whitebeard’s had in stock and all the food that was produced, the spontaneous party went on into the small hours of the morning. The burning fire kept the nipping chill brought with the breeze at bay and didn’t show any signs of waning even after hours of smoldering. I was content with sipping on the rum that continued being handed to me and watching as everyone made a fool of themselves, happy and content about being together again. There had been a sad moment earlier where some of the more drunken members of the crew started to pour their hearts out. Lightweights.

Ace had been able to calm them down by telling them that he was alive, and he wasn’t going to be brought down that easily. I honestly thought that the party was over then and there, but of course, someone got everyone riled up again and here we are a few hours later but it seemed that there were more and more people passing out of either exhaustion or alcohol poisoning.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the crew like this,” Marco mentioned out loud, to no one in particular. I turned to look at the man and saw that Izo too was looking at him with a fond expression as what he said sunk in.

“Yeah, we lost both Pops and Ace at the same time. It was hard to get everyone back on their

feet and looking forward; to keep the Whitebeard pirates up in the powers. It was a tough time,” Izo commented. I was listening intently at hearing all this, it felt like what our crew went through. We lost everyone at the same time. Getting Ace to be safe and then getting back to the crew was the only thing that kept me going. My nakama were everything to me; a thing that I never thought would happen to me.

“How’d you guys keep going?” I heard someone ask in my voice. There goes my fucking mouth moving on its own again. Both Marco and Izo both looked at me inquisitively before Marco spoke again, “I didn’t take you to be the curious type yoi.”

“I’m not. You don’t have to answer,” I told him a bit grumpily. My attitude more at myself than at him because my mouth has a habit of asking things on its own. Marco’s amused gaze didn’t turn away and he turned a bit more into his makeshift seat to lounge even more lazily than before.

“At first it was survival. Getting away from Marineford was hard, in more than one way. Thatch had to literally drag me away when Red Hair told us to leave, I was ready to fight till the death there for Pops,” he said in a calm and level voice, his speech quirk noticeably dropped in light of the serious topic. I could tell it wasn’t easy for him to repeat but he’d come to terms with what had happened.

“After a few days of grieving we had to come out of hiding, there was just no way we were going to be able to lay low for long. We had to maintain peace in all of Pops’ territory, every island under his protection became a target and we weren’t going to allow anyone to disrespect his name, even in death,” Marco continued. The last bit came out with a bit more bite and I could only imagine the painful deaths that came onto those who thought they could throw dirt on Whitebeard’s name.

“There was always one question that stayed in everyone’s mind though,” the blonde man said.

“What happened to Ace?” Izo then interjected. The man with beautiful long hair and flowing kimono had been silent through the retelling but seemed to not be able to hold on anymore.

“Through all the fighting and violence, we took out our frustration, sadness, and hatred we had after losing Pops, of course only to those who deserved it. Disgusting pirates and vengeful marines, all the same. They came at us and we found it a blessing because it kept our minds off of what happened. It kept up from thinking too much, but ‘What happened to Ace?’ was always in the back of our minds. We wanted to go searching but we had no clues and we had our hands full convincing the world that the name Whitebeard was not a fallen era, but the vessel for a new one. Then it so happened that we ran into one Surgeon of Death who pointed us in Monkey D. Luffy’s direction,” Izo explained in a melodious tone. The undivided attention I was already giving the pair increased tenfold and not a thing in the world could tear my eyes from them at the mention of Luffy.

“That is one crazy bastard!” Marco scoffed under his breath and I couldn’t help the small ghost of a smile at the very true statement.

“Luffy and Rayleigh-san, mostly the Dark King, explained to us that they didn’t know what happened to Ace either. All Luffy was sure about was that Ace wasn’t dead. That he could feel his brother was still alive. We were skeptical, thinking it was just wishful thinking, but he showed us a Vivre card that had been clearly burnt on one end but was slowly growing back. Luffy having said that it had been the size of a belli during the war but when he showed us it was the size of a napkin. From then on finding Ace was our priority,” the lazy captain said, taking a swig of rum.

“I remember the whole crew tearing the ship apart looking for a bit of Ace’s vivre card since we could never ask Luffy for a part of his. Of course, no one could remember where they’d put it if they’d been given one and the piece that was stored for official use was gone since Pops was the last person to use it. It was such a disaster!” Izo said in such an exasperated voice that a huffed laugh left me.

“That was about a month ago, and now we’ve ended up here,” Marco finished up his story.

“With a dramatic ass entrance,” I said with an eye roll. Marco threw a satisfied smirk in my direction and another swig of rum followed. I didn’t take him for the type to make a big show, but it seemed sometimes he couldn’t help himself. Izo scoffed at the exchange and stood finishing off his drink and turning back in the direction of their ship, throwing a meaningful glance over his shoulder at Marco as he sauntered off in Thatch’s direction to gather the drunk man.

“Well I guess that’s my cue, have a good rest of your night Zoro,” Marco said also finishing off his drink and standing. He stretched lazily, his whole chest exposed as his thick arms were lifted above his head and his abdominals pulled taunt. I had nothing but admiration for the man but at this moment I couldn’t help but appreciate the sight of him.

“Are you taking Ace away?” I heard my voice call out to him as soon as he turned around. Marco stopped suddenly and turned back to face me. His head tilted curiously and his full lips stretched into a small smirk.

“I don’t think anyone could make Ace do what he didn’t want to Zoro. If he wants to come with us he always has a home on my ship, if not I think he’ll still be fine,” the captain said and with that he turned away and made his way back to his ship, a one-hand wave being thrown my way.

I sat there a bit longer downing another bottle and feeling everything spin when I closed my eyes. I huffed out a breath at myself and stood with a bit of sway and decided to go down to the beach, another few bottles tucked under my arm for good measure. The beach wasn’t pretty like the white sands and wide beaches of some other islands, but it had a certain appeal with a wide cliffside and almost ash grey sand soft beneath my boots. I stared out at the choppy water that always surrounded Kuraigana and couldn’t help the urge of wanting to get back on the ocean. It was kind of a strange feeling since I’d never thought I would end up as a pirate growing up, but after all the time I’ve spent with the crew, it’d become the only place that felt right.

Picking a spot near a rock wall to block out the wind I sat on the dark sand and settle the bottles I’d brought with me. I watched the waves lull in and out of the shore in a rhythmic motion that brought me a bit of peace. I didn’t realize that I’d been upset until the conversation with Marco but the thought of being alone here again was something that stuck out in my mind. Being alone had never bothered me before but after being with the crew so long, it felt unnatural.

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen you come to the sea,” I heard a voice call out to me. I turned to see Ace, in a very disheveled state, walking over to where I sat on the edge of the surf. The man had lost the shirt he’d been wear, though it was a miracle in the first place he’d had it on, and the boots he’d stolen from Mihawk were also gone, and his hair was a sexy mess. I shifted my eye to look at the man in amusement as I lifted the bottle to my lips once more, taking another pull from the strong and burning liquid. The trail of warmth and the tingle of heat it left thrumming through my body was purely welcome as the cold weather outside seemed to bite and nip more at the skin than at a winter island. The place Mihawk called his home was just as annoying as the man himself, both doing things that caused my life to be more unpleasant than it already was being separated from the crew.

Ace stopped just where the surf missed the soles of my boots and flopped down on the sand to sit next to me, arms crossing over the top of his knees as he pulled them to his chest. The warmth he brought with him was welcome, the man was a walking furnace.

“Not like I can help it, she calls me sometimes,” I told him in response to his statement. He turned to me with a shark grin so wide pulling at his lips that his eyes crinkled closed. My heart jumped at the sight, looking so carefree and happy now he looked like the Ace I remember meeting. He looked like the man no one could catch, just like a flame dancing in the wind.

“The mistress is hard to deny once she has your heart,” he said with a big laugh.

“Pops told me that one time,” he told me once he sobered up a bit again. I just watched him, not feeling the need to comment or break the silence that had fallen.

Ace watched more intensely at the ocean than normal, standing almost as if he was in a trance. I could see the moment he’d said “fuck it” in his mind and stepped into the surf walking until waves turned to still water almost to knee level before they gave out on him and he landed on his ass.

“What the hell are you doing?!” I called out to him harshly, scrambling up from my place in the sand and splashing into the water after him, reaching out to grab his arm before the idiot drowned. Suddenly my wrist was caught in a heated grip and I ended ass first in the low tide, hair, pants, and shirt soaked. In my surprise, I grunted as something heavy landed on my waist to hold me down with only my elbows to hold my torso out of the water. My vision was spinning but when I opened my eye Ace was staring down at me with smoldering eyes and my breath caught in my throat. 

“Ace?” I asked in a quiet voice finally able to pull myself together enough to call his name. My thoughts were slower than normal thanks to all the alcohol.

“You know at first I thought I was just glad to be with someone I knew, with someone I could let my guard down and be myself around. Someone I could trust,” he said never once looking away.

“Then it started being something else. I like making you blush, or squirm and I like seeing you flustered or making you mad or anything to do with you,” he kept going. His weight was pushing more into me and I didn’t know if it was because of the effect the ocean had on his body or if he was getting closer.

My heart was pounding, and I still couldn’t say a word, my stupidity with them coming into play right now and my mind was spinning, and I didn’t know if it was from Ace or the rum. I let my head fall back, my hair swaying in the water, trying to relieve the drunken feeling that I hadn’t felt in a long while, the spinning just getting worse. It’d been more than two years since I’ve had this much to drink, the last time getting smashed being in Alabasta.

“What’s wrong?” I heard Ace ask, his voice right in my ear. I jumped in surprise and tried to pull my head up to face the man. His face was close to mine and his eyebrows were scrunched in concern, his deep and thoughtful charcoal grey eyes trained on me. I didn’t know what he meant by the question until I heard a sniff and his hand came up to whip my cheek that only managed to wet my face. I realized that there were more drops of water falling onto Ace’s hand and that the sniffling was me.

I was shocked, to say the least for the fact that I hadn’t cried in years, since before I left my dojo and much more surprised to know that it was because the alcohol was affecting me this much. I guess that’s what happens when you sober up. I pressed my cheek closer to Ace’s hand and felt stuttering in my chest both because of his closeness and because of the tears that I couldn’t stop no matter how hard I tried. It was hard being strong all the time and I’ve learned to let myself rely on Ace a bit for that comfort and feeling of home in the time that we’d been together. I don’t know why he didn’t leave the island as soon as he could it would have made everything easier. I don’t know the reason he stayed but I was grateful for it. I was glad I had a piece of home with me. I was glad for him.

The bigger man leaned back and tugged on my shirt weakly, prompting me to sit up without much of a fuss as I felt his other hand grab the other side of my face and his forehead press into mine as the tears continued to flow. He cooed soothing words to me, and I still couldn’t stop myself from wrapping an arm around the man’s waist holding him close as another stuttering breath left me. I thank whatever gods were out there that I wasn’t an ugly or loud crier like Luffy or Chopper or Usopp as I held onto the man tighter and let the tears race faster down my cheeks.

His body heat soothed the bite of the cold water and breeze while the circles that were pressed into my back calmed my shuddering breaths. Ace pulled me closer to his body with the strength he had left and gave reassuring words that soon had me taking deeper and slower breathes, the tears stanching. I was able to make out his question again in my mind now that I calmed myself enough and tried to give the slightly bewildered man an answer. I pulled away a bit and looked into confused and concerned smoky eyes and could only smile as I shut my watery eye, tears falling at the action and I barely found my voice.

“I’m going to miss you when you leave,” I got out painfully, trying to finish the thought before it vanished and went wherever thoughts went when they were lost.

“I know you’re gonna be happy with your crew again! I know you will,” I pushed through, the words spinning in my head and I had to grab onto Ace a bit tighter to try and steady the world again.

“Zoro what are you talking abo-” the other man tried to ask something, but I continued mostly because it seemed I couldn’t stop the words from leaving me, “Please tell the crew I’ll be there to meet them! That I’ll be home soon, that I’m fine and they don’t have to worry. You don’t have to worry! I’m used to being alone, so it isn’t a problem.”

“Zoro, I’m not-” I heard Ace’s voice again, but I was almost done, I had to finish.

“Thank you. Thank you for staying. Thank you for being my nakama. Thank you for being my home in all this,” I was able to choke out before a pitiful whimpering whine left me and the tears took over me again, one of my hands came from clutching Ace to rub at my eye in a vain attempt to stop their flow and cover my face.

Next thing I know my eye rushed open when I felt lips pressed against mine, shock overriding my system and all I could do was sit dumbly, tears still sliding down my face and my already short breath stolen from me.

The feel of Ace’s lips moving against mine pulled me from my stupor and I moved my lips in sync with his or as best I could with the little experience I had. His hands that were still cradling my face pulled me in closer and in that moment, I realized how much bigger than me the other was as he angled my face to press deeper into the kiss. He pulled away a bit, our foreheads pressed together once again and our breaths mingling as his intense gaze made me feel even smaller.

“I don’t know what you’re going on about, but you have nothing to thank me for. I’m here,” he said to me and pressed his weight into me more, leaning his head sluggishly onto my chest. My heart was beating wildly and my mind spinning again as I just waited for him to continue or something and that’s when I realized that I was _wanting_ him to do something. He leaned back again, reaching out to push some strands of my hair behind my ear and he grinned crookedly.

“I really do like the way your earrings clink together when I toss you around,” he said wickedly, and I couldn’t take it anymore.

I couldn’t stop myself even if I’d have tried, reaching up and gripping the back of his neck, I pulled him partly down and pushed myself up to smash our lips together. I watched briefly at his wide eyes before I closed my own and let him focus on how to keep us from drowning, which might have not been the best idea.

Once I felt and heard both his hands splash into the water to support himself, I let myself not worry about drowning. I tangled my fingers in his hair and kissed him as if my life depended on it, my body pressing closer to his as he was still perched on top of me. I hadn’t too much experience with this, but it felt incredible and I knew that Ace was definitely good at this. His tongue pushed passed my lips and danced in my mouth. It was hot and I felt like I was burning from his touch, and when I felt the water around us warm-up, I could tell it was literally.

I pulled away panting still holding onto the back of his neck and tugging on his hair and glanced at him as he looked at me absolutely predatory and I couldn’t help throwing my head back and groaning at the sight, my head spinning once again with the quick action. His thighs tightened around my waist and I felt one of his wet hands grip the back of my neck, pulling me up and his teeth clamping down on the tender skin there.

My hips bucked and I sighed pleasantly at the action and tightened my grip on his hair enough to pull him off to look at me.

“We’re so drunk,” I mumbled against his lips quietly and in disbelief between the puffing of my breath. It was a pretty obvious statement, I was drunk off my ass and I knew he was too, it was the only way he would be staring at me before he pulling me into another kiss, nipping and tugging on my bottom lip aggressively, his hips pressing down to rock against me.

“The only thing I’m drunk on is you Roronoa Zoro,” he lied through his teeth in a gruff voice once he pulled away from me. My lips throbbed from the harsh kisses, my heart throbbed from his words and my head throbbed with all the thoughts trying to formulate in my impaired mind.

I closed my eyes and concentrated on breathing before all the energy just left me, too tired and drunk to have to deal with a drunken Ace that was unintentionally playing with my emotions and just let go of his neck completely, splashing beneath the water. I savored the feeling of the water on my face before I felt Ace’s hand pull me back up a confused and concerned look on his face.

I laughed freer than I have in a very long time before I sat up, taking him with me. We helped each other stand up, his legs were weak from him being in the water mixed with all the alcohol he’d had and me from all the rum in my system, but we managed to walk out of the tide. It took a few steps to realize that Ace wasn’t going to be recovering from being in the water until he was dry. With ease, I lifted the man onto my back with a lot more protesting and resistance than the last time I’d done this for him, though I had to concentrate hard to not fall and bust our asses.

“Stay still, it’s your crazy fault for getting into the water. You know this happens when you do,” my words slurred a bit as I told the other as I manhandled him and was thankful, he was weakened right now to not hit me too hard.

I managed to get us back to the dying fire and dropped Ace to lean against one of the barrels closer to the flames, which grew of a bit in size without prompting. I looked at Ace as he stretched out, his arms rising above his head and his bare feet reaching for the fire as if he wanted the heat to consume him. I snorted at the man as he immediately fell asleep with the warmth of the renewed fire drying off the remainder of the sea that clung to his clothes and skin.

Settling down close to Ace I couldn’t help but let my mind wander to just a little while ago and felt myself ache from it. My heart was ready to let Ace go and it seemed like what happened earlier was the last parting gift I’d get from the man, even if it didn’t mean the same to him as it did for me. I realized that I’d wanted Ace for a while now but it was best to let him go and be free again. It would be selfish to keep him here, not like I could force the man to do anything in the first place. After Ace left it will be easier for me to push these feelings to the side and go back to being just nakama, he won’t remember anything from last night and things will go back to normal. Thing will go back to how they _should_ be. I didn’t know when I’d fallen asleep but I was awake when the sun was barely lighting up the horizon.

I rubbed my pounding head as I blinked slowly, trying for the stupid hangover I’d gotten to leave me the hell alone. It’s been too long since I made sure to be shit faced and I remembered why now, without Sanji and his stupid miracle hangover smoothie along with Chopper’s pills this shit sucked. I looked around to see everyone else from the night before was still asleep and that included Ace, the other man was snoring loudly, not bothered in the least with the small beams of light starting to filter through the sky. I turned away from the ravenette and the rest of the messy, drunk pirates and picked a direction to walk in.

Of course, I ended up back on the beach, this time at a rocky cliff overlooking the water crashing into the wall below. I stood still as I felt the sea breeze ruffle my hair and watched as the sun began to rise from its sleep seriously this time. It was after a particularly strong wind that I noticed Marco was just pulling to a stop next to me.

“Morning yoi,” he greeted on a yawn and a lazy stretch of his arms followed. I grunted back in acknowledgement, turning my gaze back to the rolling water. It was pleasantly silent as we watch the warm ball of heat rise, the blues, and purples of the sky giving way to tender reds and soft oranges.

“The crew and I will be leaving today. We should be gone by midday,” Marco’s calm yet strong voice drifted softly between us. My heart jumped a bit, knowing that this was coming but still not quite ready for it.

“I’m going back to the castle for training, but it was good meeting you all. Ace has good nakama,” I told him, turning to look directly at the other.

“Luffy has a good first mate and if the rest of the crew is anything like you, you guys are going to be just fine,” Marco told me in all seriousness. I couldn’t help the small grin pulling on my lips at the compliment.

“Thank you,” I told him genuinely. I stretched my arm out for a shake that he met me in halfway, hands grasping forearms in mutual respect and the forming of a bond. The unspoken understanding that the Strawhat and Whitebeard pirates had each other’s back was clear.

“We’ll be seeing each other a lot more Zoro, be ready,” he said with a small grin and a tight squeeze, then the man let go and was soon taking a dive toward the crashing waves before blue flamed wings erupted and he caught an updraft, heading back in the direction of his ship.

I shook my head at the man, his exit not quite as dramatic as his entrance but it had the same effect. My heart dropped a bit at knowing they were leaving and knowing it would be a while before I could see them and Ace again, but it wasn’t as crushing as it was last night. I smiled a bit knowing the first thing Ace was going to do was find Luffy and I was kind of glad I was going to miss all the craziness between the two idiots.

I headed back to the castle, the break from Perona’s stupid ass and Mihawk’s annoying ass was nice but the apes in the forest weren’t any better, and it was time to get back to business. I could hang on for half a year and then everything will be back to how it was. I didn’t expect the peace I felt, and it was nice, I’d be seeing Ace in the future and that was all that mattered.

By the time I made it back to the castle, I could see the Jolly Roger that all of the crew wore on them high on the mast of the ship. I took a last look at it before pushing open the stupidly huge door and entering the gloomy ass castle to find Mihawk. It hadn’t even been five minutes of me being back in the stupid castle that I heard fucking Perona screeching at me.

“WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?” the woman called as she floated through the wall behind where I just passed. I rolled my eyes at her and didn’t even bother answering her as I kept stalking through the hallway toward Mihawk’s office.

“It’s to the right you idiot. Do you know how bored I’ve been locked up in this castle?” the pink-haired girl spoke again, and I sighed this time as I about-faced to head in the right direction.

“So, you missed me?” I asked just to piss her off and grinned at the horrified scoff she let out.

“NO! I just don’t think I can take Mihawk bullying me without being able to bully you another second,” the wench whined clinging to my shoulder in a disgustingly childish way.

“Get off!” I tried shaking her off, but she had a strong ass grip for having pencil arms. We ended up screaming and bitching the rest of the way to Mihawk’s office. We slammed through the door, Perona trying to swing her fucking umbrella at me while I was trying to rip it out of her hand while still trying to shake the leech off.

“Could you two please compose yourselves, you aren’t children,” Mihawk’s monotone voice stopped both Perona and me and she peeled herself off my back in what looked like embarrassment.

“He started it,” she said meekly with her face turning red.

“What’s wrong with you now shrimp? Your face got all red,” I said. Her face got even redder, her eyes darting to Mihawk, who was silently watching now, and she turned back to me with an angry pout face.

“STUPID ZORO!” she yelled before flying out of the room in a hurry. She confused the shit out of me. I shook my head turning back to Mihawk to see him still watching where Perona had been a second ago. I rolled my eyes at him too and asked if we were ever gonna get on with training. His sharp eyes cut back to me and with a small, evil smirk he stood up, left the book he was reading on the seat and turned out of the room. I followed him with a happy spring in my step and an eager grin, I was gonna kick his fuckin’ ass today.

“I see you’ve learned some things from Phoenix-san,” Mihawk said as he parried another of my swings. I was dripping sweat while the bird bastard looked as cool as a fuckin’ cucumber.

“You still have a ways to go though,” he continued like I wasn’t giving him attack after attack. I hated him but I couldn’t help but admire him. What’d he go through to be number one?

“Do you ever shut up?” I growled at him and swung Shusui in a short, sharp slash to his face. He dodged easily and threw an accurate jab towards my stomach, I dodged to the side, the blade grazing me instead of impaling me.

“Most people wonder if I even have a voice, Roronoa,” he commented stoically. I snorted in disbelief at the statement, the asshole never shut up around me.

“You are an entertaining person is all,” the tall man continued in an unusual mood to be teasing instead of just shutting his mouth. I rolled my eyes as I ducked under a slow drag of Mihawk’s blade, his moves gradually becoming slower to my eyes, though in the looming darkness of the setting sun it was getting harder to be one step ahead. Mihawk was also trying to disorientate me with his haki and mere presence, which he’d taken to doing lately, so this was probably going to be wrapped up soon.

Suddenly the taller man was pressing his attack more aggressively as we danced around the broken pieces of wall and old building ruins. I grunted with the effort of staying the swings of his sword, I knew I was damn strong, but I still didn’t have shit on Mihawk. I stepped back again as Mihawk continued to press, dust blowing up in the swiftness of our movement and I stumbled a bit on a bigger piece of rubble I’d stepped on.

Planting my feet quickly to avoid giving Mihawk more of an opening I knew I had to dislodge his sword and gain some distance. I pushed forward, tilting the triangle Shusui and Sandai Kitetsu were making to hold back Mihawk’s sword at an angle and jumped backwards to gain space. Except my back hit a hard, stone wall behind me that was just big enough to stop me in my tracks. My eyes widened in shock and the slightest panic, I tried to pivot on the ball of my foot and roll along the wall to fall behind the edge and further away from Mihawk, but it was too late.

The swordsman was already pinning me against the wall, all three of my swords flying off to the side and the other man looming over me. My chin tilted up as the very tip of his sword pressed the slightest bit into my skin, but I didn’t avert my eyes in the slightest. My chest was heaving, and I felt a droplet of sweat slowly slip down my temple as the silence hung between us. Mihawk’s lips pulled into a cutting smirk and leaned closer to my ear and spoke in a quiet voice.

“Looks like I win,” he said, and I couldn’t help the shiver that torn down my spine at remembering where I heard those words last. I couldn’t say anything as the man pulled away enough to look at me and his smirk grew bigger, next thing I knew his eyes darted to the left and in a split second I was let go and a plume of flames was flashing where Mihawk was standing.

“You shouldn’t bully your student Mihawk-san, especially without his training partner around,” I heard a voice call out in a flippant tone that hung in between the space of serious and teasing. One look at the man and I knew he was trying to keep his cool.

Ace walked closer towards us with his hands stuck in his pockets as flames sputtered around his feet with every step he took. I was confused at what I was seeing since he should have been gone hours ago.

“What you call bullying, I call training Ace-kun,” Mihawk commented lightly, putting his sword away but the slightest pull of his lip was still present. Ace pulled to a stop just in front of me, eyes still not leaving Mihawk while his body language was the picture of cool and collected, the flames around his feet dying out but the stone beneath him was charred black.

“Let’s keep training then, I haven’t stretched out since the crew got here,” Ace said as he stretched his arms high above his head.

“I’ve already finished training for today, if you’d like to stay with Roronoa longer, that is up to you,” Mihawk said dismissively. He nonchalantly turned and was disappearing back to the castle but not before he threw a flirty wink over his shoulder, whether it was at me or Ace I didn’t know but it didn’t stop the disgusted sneer from pulling at my lips. I could feel the heat radiating off of Ace from where he stood just a few feet in front of me, his eyes still not leaving the direction Mihawk left in.

“You usually don’t let him bother you so much,” I commented slowly, trying to put my other thoughts in order before my mouth got me in trouble again. The man shifted his eyes to look at me in annoyance as he lifted his hand to ruffle his hair and huff out a breath. I watched him closely as I tried to figure out what he was still doing and eventually I couldn’t be bothered to think about it too much.

“What are you still doing here? Your crew left hours ago,” I told him finally pushing myself off the wall I’d been leaning against. I turned and glared at the wall knowing it was Mihawk’s fault I didn’t sense the damn thing, but it didn’t stop me from wanting to break it to pieces. Turning back to Ace the man was looking at me with an even more annoyed look than before, almost angry before he started stomping off to the castle. I guess that was my cue to follow and I did so silently after picking up and sheathing all three of my swords.

By the time we’d gotten to the castle, Ace was radiating heat again and he sat on the floor instead of the bed in an attempt to not burn the whole place down. I sighed at the man’s childishness that I hadn’t seen in a while and headed toward the shower to get clean, knowing that no more training was going to happen today. I didn’t think too much as I let the water run down my back in a soothing sensation, I could already feel a headache coming on.

Why was Ace still here? He had his nakama and a way to get off this shitty ass island, so why? I rolled my eyes and couldn’t help the sneer from pulling at my lips. This is why I hated being around people, they’re too fucking complicated. I shut off the water and got dressed quickly, just wanting to get drunk again, but the Whitebeards had taken the rest of their booze with them.

I got back into the room and swung my gaze over to find the man where he’d last been. I snorted at the incredulous sight I was seeing. The man that had been pissed to all hell not 10 minutes ago was fast asleep. I sat at the edge of the bed and looked at his form, it was one of the few times he looked peaceful and gorgeous in his sleep since usually, he’s a damn ugly sleeper.

I looked at his long lashes and his still lips and suddenly the urge to kiss him was overwhelming. I could imagine myself cuddled up to his side and sleeping the rest of the night away just like that and at that moment, I knew that this is what that shitty cook was always going on about

_Love._

Finding the person you want to spend your life with, blah, blah, blah. It wasn’t as grand as people made it out to be, it wasn’t an awe-inspiring epiphany. It was simple, the acknowledgement that Ace was someone who had become irreplaceable to me and that I wanted to protect.

I couldn’t resist so I moved to sit next to him, fingers brushing away the longer bits of midnight black hair to clear it off his face. The slow rise and fall of his chest was calming and his freckles seemed to pop out at me. I leaned over, pressing our foreheads together and watched the stillness he had, my lips moving on their own to his. It was a soft kiss and as I was pulling away, hands suddenly twinned into my hair and pulled me back to kiss me like I’ve never been kissed before.

He moved perfectly, his tongue pushing past the barrier of my lips to ravish the inside of my mouth. The hands in my hair strong and unyielding and put enough force to have me pressing into him for more contact. Then just as suddenly as it’d started the kiss ended, Ace’s hands falling from my hair and I was able to pull away for some much-needed air.

I looked at the man in astonishment. The bastard was still asleep! All he did was lick his lips and turn to lay on his side instead of his back, nothing else as he continued to snooze away. The red flush that the kiss had brought onto my face burned brighter in embarrassment even as relief of not being caught coursed through me. To be caught secretly kissing Ace in his sleep by said man would have been a hundred times worse than him reacting to the kiss in his sleep. At least he won’t remember what happened later.

I sighed out a breath and went to stand, I could deal with all this tomorrow, too tired physically and mentally today to care. It was as I was getting up that I felt a hot shackle clamp around my wrist and yank me forward, Ace’s strength toppling me over to fall on the man despite my attempt to pull my arm away or to stay sitting up. He quickly flipped us over and it still surprised by just how much stronger he still was than me.

“You aren’t getting away this time Zoro,” he told me with an annoying ass smirk as he settled between my legs after he pushed me firmly into the floor. That bastard was just pretending to be asleep, which was bad enough by itself but that devilish smile spelled bad things for me and it made me uncharacteristically nervous, not being able to help myself from grabbing Ace’s wrist that was by

my head as he hovered above me.

“Ace?” I asked seriously, not knowing what the man was going to do next. I watched as the smile fell from his face, a million emotions flying past trying to settle on his features only to be washed away by the one playing right behind it. Eventually, he settled for a stern expression and pressed just that much more into me as he spoke.

“Let me tell you this way Zoro since you still don’t get it. I didn’t leave with the crew because I didn’t want to. I’m not the second commander of the new Whitebeard pirates, and I’m not a part of the Strawhats, I’m Portgas D. Ace the pirate that is in alliance with the Whitebeards and Strawhats and I’ll do what I want and go where I want,” he told me seriously, his voice not raising but the hard edge to it very clear. I nodded my head at what he said, knowing that this was important for some reason.

“Mihawk was playing around with you today to bother the fuck out of me because everyone with eyes can see. I don’t know why you’re running now but you aren’t getting _away_ ,” he said the emphasis on the last three words suuuuper clear. His voice was deep and serious as he pressed more of his weight into me and I was confused and turned on all in one.

“I don’t run,” I told him seriously, not raising my voice, but my attitude was rearing its head at his words.

“Why would I want to get away anyway?” I asked him as I squeezed his wrist. He watched me again with a serious look and instead of answering me, he kissed me again, deep and slow.

I pressed my hand against his chest and just let the idea that this was real set in as our lips moved together. I’d had sex with a few women, but it was never intimate, they just wanted a dick and I happened to have one. It was impersonal and never really interested me at all, even after losing my virginity but this was so different from that and we hadn’t done anything yet. The hand that wasn’t holding the other man up roamed over my hip and clothed thigh as he pressed into our kiss. I didn’t know what to do with my hands, so I tightened my grip on his wrist while the other that was resting on his chest slid up behind his neck to grip onto his hair. I was still nervous, which was weird already but not as bad as some of the other things I felt the last few months.

“Pay attention,” Ace’s deep voice called when he pulled away. I sucked down air and opened my eyes to look at him. His usually smoky eyes were dark with intention and his freckles stood out against the flush of his cheeks.

“Pay attention to me, fuck everything else,” he said as he roughly pushed his hand through my hair and pulled sharply enough to have my head tilt back, my neck exposed. I was a bit surprised when he leaned back and pulled me up with him and his teeth were on my neck, sucking a mark there eagerly.

A groan fell from my lips at his words and actions and I tried taking a bit of my weight off of him, hands moving on their own now that I wasn’t thinking too hard. Ace kept me right where he wanted me though, my back arched where his thick arm wrapped around my body and my hips shifting where I was pressed flush against him. My knee came up to rub at his legs to get some kind of sensation and my hips bucked up to get closer to that heated hardness I could feel.

A growl fell from his lips and I felt my cock jump at the sound. Usually, I was always in charge of myself and control of my body but the way he moved me how he wanted and took what he wanted was so strangely different from everything I knew that it was doing weird things to me. Eventually, both of my hands were in his hair, the fingers rolling my nipple gently but persistently and the fingers creeping lower down my back were getting to be too much, the sensual grazes of the fabric from my shirt riling me up. Especially since Ace’s hot mouth didn’t stop leaving marks up and down my neck.

His heat was making my head fuzzy and his hands doing things I never imagined would feel like **this** were making me strange. I couldn’t stop moving my hips, especially when he shifted me over to push his knee right between my legs. A groan, which sounded disturbingly close to a whine, slipped past my lips, the vibration filling my chest and Ace tightened his hold on me, teeth sinking into my neck. He turned us around quickly and pinned me to the side of the bed, a tingling ran through me at his show of strength.

“Fuuuck, I love making these sing,” Ace groaned in my ear and suddenly bit around my earrings. A high-pitched sound left me as his tongue began weaving around the precious metal and the sound his mouth was making driving me crazy. Fuck this.

I used the hand in Ace’s hair to pull the man from my neck, a sharp hiss coming from him and a groan following as I pulled him into a harsh kiss. I sucked on the man’s tongue as he pushed it into my mouth and slowly moved my lips against his, his hands gripped handfuls of me squeezing and kneading almost frantically as we kissed. He pressed closer trying to move faster, his hand sliding under my shirt, his hips grinding harshly against me.

I pushed him forcefully to lay flat on the floor, a loud thud and whoosh of air left him as his back hit the stone. I looked as his chest heaved quick breathes, his nipples hard and the sheen of sweat apparent even in the low light. His eyes never left me, and they looked like he’d devour me any second. At the thought, I couldn’t help the “mmmph” sound that left me that I thought only happened when I was really enjoying a plate of food, and the slow grind of my hips down onto his.

His hands came up to grip onto my hips, pulling me down as he slid his length right against me. I hated and loved these pants at the moment, they were so thin I could feel every inch of him through the fabric, but they were still on. My hands went to the lining on my shirt and pulled it slowly over my head, hips not stopping their rocking. Hey, Ace isn’t the only one that’s gonna have some fun.

“Shit Zoro,” Ace said trying to sit up. One hand pressed him down firmly as my knees tightened around his hips, letting him know he wasn’t getting up soon, while the other went to untie the loose cloth I’d been using as a belt. My hand slid down his chest as my pants fell open, the chilly air brushing against newly revealed skin causing a shiver to break out along my skin. Ace bucked his hips as my hand reached the buckle of his belt and yanked it open with no care where the flame-skulled buckle and fabric landed.

I gave him a stern look to stay in place as I slid down the man’s body, just letting my hands explore the hard planes and sexy dips as I settled between his legs and finished pulling his pants open. I stalled for a second as I looked back up at Ace, his pupils blown out as he stared down at me, his pants already yanked half-way down his legs and the print of his member clearly define in his boxer briefs. His hand came to run across my cheek in a comforting motion.

“Take your time,” he said softly, his voice deep and if the words hadn’t left a ringing in my ears, I would have thought I’d imagined those lips moving.

I closed my eye and let his warm hand take all of my attention, letting my tongue tease his thumb that traced too close to my lips before nipping at the skin of his palm and wrist. I slowly grabbed onto the band of his underwear and slowly pulled it to meet where his pants sat on his thighs and helped the man kick out of the clothes fully. It was when Ace’s other hand slowly guided mine onto his member that the heat coming from him felt like it spiked, or was it coming from me? I watched his reaction as he slowly pumped his member with both our hands, his breath coming a little faster and his eyes not leaving the sight of my hand touching him for a second.

My eye lingered on Ace’s face for a second before I was drawn to the same thing he was looking at and I felt my mouth start to water as I watched the big dick in my hand as it dribbled out precum, my thumb rubbing along the head just where it met the shaft. Ace’s groan resonated in the otherwise quiet room, his thighs splaying out to allow for more and his hand moving to cover the bottom part of his face. I couldn’t help the urge to sink my teeth into the muscle of his thick thigh and didn’t try to stop myself as I did just that, sucking at the spot and letting the flesh slip from my teeth slowly, taking my time just like Ace said. I made sure to leave some marks as his huffs of breath and pleasured hisses spurred me on as I slowly made my way to where my hand was twisting slowly and pumping teasingly, knowing what drove me crazy on lonely nights and putting that knowledge to good use.

Without letting myself think too much or back down from trying something new, I lapped at the head of his cock, the heat welcome on my tongue. Ace sucked a breath in and shifted his weight onto his elbow to watch me and the power I felt with all his attention on me was making me drunk. I took the rest of the length into my mouth and hallowed out my cheeks treating it like it was one of the frozen treats Sanji would give us on hot days.

Ace’s hand eventually threaded its way through my hair, and he held the short strands with a strength that had me tingling all over. My other hand that wasn’t fisting the rest of Ace’s dick reached between my own legs and slowly started a torturous pace, copying the slow drags of my tongue and enjoyed how my tongue was curling around Ace. Soon, I was pumping my hand with intention and not just teasing strokes, the sounds I was making were spurring Ace on as he pushed down on my neck little by little to get me to swallow him deeper. When my nose hit smooth, thick hair I swallowed instinctively, trying not to gag and the vibration that rippled through Ace’s body was so deep that his hunger was unmistakable.

The man grabbed me by my arms and in one swift motion tossed me onto the bed that was just behind us. I bounced a bit, but it wasn’t long until Ace pulled my pants the rest of the way off my legs and met his own that were thrown somewhere on the floor. I watched him as he stalked up to me before trying to pin me to the bed, his lips melding into mine. My hand thrust into his long hair and pulled harshly, a growl pulling at my lips from having the power tipped from my favor. Ace, of course, took this as a challenge and pressed one of my wrists into the mattress, making it useless as he ground our members together. A groan left me as he didn’t let up, his teeth teasing my ear and his tongue playing with my earrings as it seemed he liked doing.

I pulled on his hair again to pull his face closer and bit his lower lip in retaliation as I wrapped my leg around his and flipped our positions to where I was straddling his hips again (thankfully this fucking bed is huge). Ace just grinned as he gripped my hips and slowly ground his member right between my cheeks, the feel of his piping hot member having me throw my head back in pleasure. Ace moved to sit up, bringing our chests together while his hands started to make their way around my body at the same time. One gripped my already heated cock with an even hotter hand as he pumped with an even, strong stroke while the other drew a shiver along my skin as I could feel a finger run teasingly down the length of my back, an actual tiny flame licking at my senses, the heat driving me crazy. My back arched so far into Ace, I mildly shocked myself for not knowing I could bend that far, that he had to lean back from our combined weight.

My thoughts were torn between thrusting into Ace’s superheated fist and arching into Ace’s teasing and lingering touches that were dipping dangerously low. I pressed a hand into the man’s chest in an attempt to gain a sense of balance and without removing his hands he leaned his head down to suck my fingers into his mouth. His tongue twisted and sinfully turned around my fingers that if I didn’t already know I was going to hell, I knew I’d be condemned for enjoying the feeling so much.

“Breathe,” I heard Ace’s deep voice and I was confused for a second before I felt his thick finger press in slowly. My head bobbed in sudden agreement of his statement and I concentrated on breathing and the sensation of his hand still pumping my member coming back to the front of my mind.

I let my head fall back as he made shallow thrusts, moving slowly and with a purpose, I let out a slow, shuddering breath when he pushed his finger deep inside, all the way in while adding another to the thickness inside me. I stopped moving completely, all my concentration was on his fingers as they were doing their job to spread and stretch, the feeling was weird and uncomfortable, not to mention it left a stinging pain.

I felt his tongue start to lave at my fingers again, I opened my eye to look at him with a hooded expression; I didn’t know exactly what feeling to focus on and I wasn’t sure I was enjoying the way this was going. He nibbled at the tips of my callused fingers and sucked gently as he pulled away when I started to press my fingers back against his teasing tongue.

“You’re doing so good,” he told me as he pressed his fingers up. A surprised breath left me at the motion and was definitely interested in the jolt of pleasure that came from the movement. In all the new feelings Ace hadn’t stopped his hand that was on my member, but he’d switched to small, teasing movements with the tips of his fingers instead of giving me something to bring satisfaction.

“Hurry up,” I told him impatiently, throwing my hips back and feeling a bigger jolt of pleasure than before, my breath coming a little quicker as I pressed our hips harsher together. The look in his eyes got much darker and he pressed in a third finger quickly on his next upstroke, curving his fingers a bit to really rub against my walls.

“Fuck!” I called out as my chin fell forward in pleasure and gripped onto Ace’s hair when the man’s teeth met my nipple. His tongue was doing devilish things while his mouth made pressure and his fingers were making me lose my mind. I had no clue some things made you feel like this in life, but fuck am I glad Ace was the one showing me.

I couldn’t help as my hips started to push back into Ace’s hand as the fingers not inside me started spreading my ass wider. I felt like I couldn’t breathe and that the air around us was blistering hot, I seriously thought that Ace set the bed on fire. I used my legs to lift myself just a bit and press down into the fingers that were now pumping faster and harder.

“You’re so perfect,” I heard Ace’s deep voice tell me and I couldn’t stop myself from looking straight at him.

“And you’re a fucking tease,” I responded with a little extra bite just to emphasize that I was not fucking around when I told him to hurry up. I’ve never done this with a man before, but I was eager to get on with it, the doubts about not liking the sensations totally blown out of the water and I just wanted the man’s dick to pound into me right now.

Ace chuckled at the response and made sure to drag his fingers across the spot that had me seeing stars and actually moan like the little whore I was. I grabbed the man’s jaw and pulled him into a rough kiss, sucking and biting at his lips while grinding down into his fingers. He let go of my member to knead at my ass, spreading me further and groaned when I rocked back and forth to make our members slide easily against one another with the slickness between us.

My breaths were coming just as fast as my heartbeats, the pounding in my chest just as hard as my cock and I couldn’t wait another second. I clenched around the fingers inside me without thought, just wanting more pressure and needing more. Ace flipped me over onto all fours easily, especially since I’d given up on trying to get the other to submit and I moaned when he dragged his teeth across the muscle of my back after a series of kisses.

“Ace,” I called his name in a stupidly whiny voice hoping to get the man to get on with it. It obviously worked better than earlier since he pulled his fingers away from me and I wasn’t too prideful to let out the desperate whine that came from the empty feeling the wake of his fingers left. Ace’s broad hands which pulled my cheeks open were scorching hot against my skin, pleasure spiking through my system as he pressed his cock into the dip of my ass to rock his hips teasingly. I pressed back to feel the heat of his body since he left me cold wherever his skin had been touching.

“It’s easier like this, just relax,” he said in a low voice as I felt his hand slide slowly up the skin of my back to rest on the back of my neck.

I leaned into the touch, the heat addicting, the strength in Ace’s hand as he grabbed onto my hip making me stupid and my arms were strangely weak. I dropped to my elbows hoping to not land face-first into the mattress as Ace started to push into me at an idiotically slow pace. I keened at the stretch that Ace’s cock caused and the air in my lungs caught in my throat as it tried escaping.

Ace’s hand wrapped around my jaw and lifted my chin high making my neck stretch and the growled out “breathe” right in my ear had air whooshing from me. The man pressed all the way in until his hips met the flesh of my ass and his balls fitting snuggly in the cleft of my ass. I bite down on my wrist to keep myself grounded as the man settled inside me, the fucking **_heat_** rolling off of Ace was making me lightheaded alongwith the slow rocking of his hips.

 _“Fuck_ ,” Ace groaned out as he stilled inside me, his hand still on my chin making sure my breaths were puffing between his fingers.

“You’re squeezing me so tight,” he moaned as I felt his forehead land between my shoulder blades.

“What the fuck did you expect?” I gritted through clenched teeth, not able to stop my attitude even with his dick in my ass. A hard smack to my ass cheek had a very high-pitched cry leave me as I threw my hips back, the dose of pleasure making all my limbs tingle.

“Brat,” he called as he pulled out slowly, the drag of his cock on my walls odd in all the right ways.

His grip on my hips kept me from following his movement as he pulled his cock almost all the way out only to sink back in just as slow as his retreat. I gripped the sheets tightly as I tried to not lose myself to what Ace was doing to me, the pleasure numbing my body in the sweetest of ways. When I sighed out a big breath leveling out my erratic breathing, Ace let go of my face and his burning hand went to grab my shoulder, using it as leverage to pull me harder onto his still slow strokes his other hand finding its way to the small of my back.

“Come on Zoro,” Ace’s deep voice called in a low tone, his knees pushing my own out more to have my back bow even more.

I moved my hips back like he wanted, the movement different from my past experience but the need to chase the pleasure made it as easy as breathing. I rocked my whole body back into Ace as the man found a nice rhythm of deep strokes that had small grunts leave me every time I felt him settle deep in my stomach. The tightness winding inside me was becoming too unbearable to just rely on this slow pace and I gripped my cock, fingers teasing the head and stroking the shaft making my hips buck even harder onto Ace. Suddenly my hand was yanked away by the wrist and pinned to my back, where Ace’s hand had been resting not five seconds ago.

“You’re going to come with just my cock,” Ace rumbled in my ear as his whole body weight pressed into me. My dick jumped at the possessive words and I moaned when he pulled my hips back enough that my weight shifted off my elbow and I fell, chest pressed to the bed.

His hand moved from my shoulder to grip the back of my neck again and I wasn’t ready for the hard thrust he gave when he leaned back onto his knees. The feeling of being so under someone else’s control was making me float and I had no say-so over the moans that came with every hard and much faster thrust of his hips.

He was hitting that spot inside me every time, _so_ good and the pleasure had my senses spinning as Ace’s cock filled _every_ inch of me.

“Ace, oh my fuckin- Ace!” I heard words in my voice call out to the man behind me and I’d lost all brain functions besides thrusting my hips back and breathing. I was so close to cumming when Ace suddenly pulled out completely and before I could even fully register the loss of his heat and cock, he’d flipped me over and sunk in again.

I threw my head back as a groan spilled from my lips at the change in angle and his arms came to wrap under my knees, his hands again spreading my ass as he leaned back, taking me with him. I wrapped my legs as best I could around him to press as close to him as I could and I pulled the man into a messy kiss, my hands tangled deep into his hair. His arms bulged as he bounced me up and down on his member fast, his mouth moving to suck deep marks along my neck.

“That’s it, baby, call my name,” the man said, his fingers coming to tease where we were connected. The feeling of his hot fingers teasing the already stretched skin had me tensing up all over, my thighs pressing hard against him.

“Ace!” I cried again as he pressed my back to the mattress, my nails coming down on the taut skin of his back. The pounding he was giving me being too much for me to hold on anymore and I came between us, the force of my orgasm tearing out a strangled sound from my throat and I sunk my teeth deep into his shoulder, my nails digging deep in an attempt to ground myself. Ace groaned above me as he snapped his hips fast and hard chasing his own orgasm that wracked his body not too long after my own, his cum filling me even more than before and my hips bucked back at the feeling of it pumping into me.

I moaned as he rocked slowly, not pulling out but not sinking further inside me either, riding out both of our orgasms and I’d come down from my high enough to let go of the flesh between my teeth, my legs falling limp beside Ace. The man pulled back enough for me to see the steam literally rolling off of him and I mindlessly accepted that that was where all the heat was coming from.

Ace slowly leaned back onto his heels and his hands ran down the front of my chest, his fingers tracing the edges of the mess I’d made as he made his way down to my sex lines. I watched him the entire time our breathing slowing down and I noticed the blood trailing down his chest from the bite mark I’d given him. I felt bad for hurting him but I still swept my tongue along my teeth, picking up the metallic taste that lingered in my mouth and loved the dark satisfaction I got from leaving such an obvious mark on him.

“You okay?” I heard him ask in a quiet voice. I brought my eye to stare at him directly and loved the way his smokey grey eyes looked at me.

“Better than okay,” I told him, my voice hoarse. The grin he gave me was so wide I couldn’t help but give him one of my own. He pulled out and I felt empty and cold, especially with his cum dribbling down my thighs as I stood up.

My knees wobbled a bit before he pressed right against me to hold me up, I glared at his cocky ass grin and smacked him away. He laughed as he made his way to the shower first and I couldn’t help the amused snort that left me at seeing his back. That’s what the bastard gets.

I followed him into the shower at a slower pace than normal and got excited again when I walked in and saw Ace under a spray of water. The liquid running in rivets down his tan skin in such an enticing way that all previous soreness was forgotten about. My hole throbbed in want and I stalked up to the man with a purpose.

It’s stupid what happens to you after you realize that you have _feelings_ for someone. I shuddered at the word because I couldn’t stand my fucking self sometimes. I started being self-conscious in the weeks that followed the Whitebeard crew leaving the island and started noticing Ace’s lingering looks on my body much more than before. The attention he paid me while sparring now not only brought me shortness of breath from the exertion of our bodies but because of a much different reason, sometimes that leading to very sticky situations.

“ You should pay attention if you want me to at least break a sweat,” Ace said. I focused back in on the man as he cocked his hip to the side and cocked an interested eyebrow at me.

The afternoon sun wasn’t harsh but more of a warm light that heated you up instead of suffocating and the rays seemed to wrap around Ace like he was one with the sun. Two sources of fire in unity, just in two separate spaces and each radiant by themselves and yet they complemented each other perfectly as the man stood under it. I felt my heart pick up its pace a bit and my already labored breathing also puffed out faster.

I threw myself at the man on impulse, much different than the way I would if I was taking this as a training session, and the flame man moved back surprised. He moved his feet quick and the fleeting thought of wanting to see the man dance passed through my mind. I tossed it away fast when I remembered I was shit at dancing and what I wanted right now was much better than that.

It was harder to catch the man since he always went around shirtless and the only real way to get him to stop moving in these “training” sessions was to go to full-on grappling with him, so I wasted no time in doing just that. I swung Shusui across in a slashing motion just to keep Ace moving backwards and not a chance to move to the sides, though the little shit was good at doing the opposite of what I wanted. Either way, it looked like he was going to be cooperative with what I needed right now as I moved us toward the tree line with a few well-placed slashes.

It was when I had us pushing right up on the edge of the forest that I threw Shusui, literally threw, at the spot where Ace had been a second ago. The man looked at me like I was crazy, and I was for throwing my sword, soon to be swords, like a fucking spear. The look didn’t stop Sandai Kitetsu’s fate of landing point first right by Ace’s foot or the grip on his shoulders I managed in his confusion.

Ace’s confused face was almost better than his surprised face when I let Wado Ichimonji clatter to the floor between us, thankfully not landing on anyone’s foot (Ichimonji was a saint compared to the other two hellions), and the best of all the expressions was when I smashed our lips together, my tongue pushing passed his lax lips immediately. I shoved him back into the tree that was right behind him (I ended up taking some pointers from Mihawk’s last stunt) and a groan/grunt left Ace as the air pushed out of his lungs from the impact.

I felt his hands grab onto my hips as he tried to steady himself, his lips and tongue coming to life as he got up to speed as to what was happening. I ran my hand through his hair and tugged sharply, making a nice sound leave him and I couldn’t help the pleased rumble that started in my chest. He pulled away first, not having been prepared for such a long kiss and his breaths were coming out in huffs that made my ego inflate. His eyes that had gotten darker in lust pinned me with a probing look to see what had brought on my unexpected attack.

“I can make you break a sweat no problem,” I cheekily told him with just the right amount of the smugness I felt slipping into the words.

“Yes please,” was all Ace said as he pulled me back to his mouth.

It wasn’t until the sun went down that we finally settled for roasted ape for dinner and a night of camping outside. We laid next to each other in silence, the nights always cold on the island in the weird bipolar weather it could never seem to decide on, but Ace’s heat kept the bite in the air at bay. It was peaceful but it was quiet now that Ace’s old crew left, and the island was drowned in silence so thick it was suffocating. The Whitebeard’s appearance just catapulting a problem that I’d been avoiding for a while now as it was starting to be relevant.

“What are you going to do now?” I heard the words echo in the small space between us and a weird sense of déjà vu hit me making me remember when Ace first came to the island and I asked him the same question.

The man turned his head from gazing at the stars through the wispy clouds to look down at me with an amused smirk. I feel like he knew I had the serious problem of my mouth having a fucking mind of its own and knew I was just as off-put by the questions that came out of it as he was. He didn’t mention that though as he told me, amused, that I was much more curious than people gave me credit for. 

_No, I just don’t know how to shut my fucking mouth_ I thought to myself while I just stared at him, telling him silently that I still expected an answer, because this was important. I didn’t know what “we” were, but I knew that I wanted him near. If that wasn’t what he wanted, then fine but I needed to know because the time to leave this shitty ass island with its shitty ass people was oh so close that I could taste it.

“I still don’t want Luffy to be my captain,” he blurted out immediately and I couldn’t help the loud laugh that left me.

“I didn’t think you would. If Marco the fucking Phoenix couldn’t be your captain, I doubt there would be anyone left in the world to manage,” I told him in full humor but with all seriousness.

“I do like the thought of new adventures though. I loved my time on the Moby but there was too much paper-pushing,” he said with an exaggerated sigh and I felt my stomach flip excitedly with the thought of what he was getting at.

“There is _definitely_ no paper pushing on the Sunny, unless you count knocking shit over when a wrestling match to save your food breaks out,” I told him with a grin. He groaned at that and complained loudly that Luffy never knew when to keep his grubby little hands to himself and I fully agreed with him on that.

“I want to be with you too though,” he said again after another brief silence fell over us. I pushed into his side just the tiniest bit to show that I liked that thought but didn’t want to interrupt him.

“Zoro I _really_ want to be with you,” he said again and this time he shifted to lean over me, his eyes staring through me and I felt like I could feel the flames of his fire licking at my skin. I felt him burning me up from the inside and I knew I wanted that too.

“Yeah, me too,” I told him quietly, my hand going to the center of his chest where I could swear his fire came from.

“I don’t want to keep you from the sea if you want to go then go, I’ll be here when you get back, but I want you to be there with me when crazy shit happens,” I told him honestly, the most honest I’ve ever been in my life.

“Be mine. Call it whatever you want boyfriend, husband, partner, whatever but be mine. I’ll ask you however you want, but I want you. I want you for me and I want there to be an us,” he said without any embarrassment and I had to wonder how the man did it.

My face was the hottest its ever been and I was hoping to everything that it wasn’t as red as I thought it was. I slide my hand up to cup the back of his neck, loving how it fits perfectly in my hand and I pulled him down for a kiss. It wasn’t gentle but it was something that showed that I would love that idea. It was hard to believe what he was saying but I know Ace wouldn’t lie, if he said he wanted to be with me then that’s what it was. He was like Luffy in that way.

“You know you’re mine too, this isn’t one way,” I told him seriously, the grip on his neck tighter than it was just before, his answering grin was so wide it looked like it hurt.

“I wouldn’t want it any other way,” he said and by his tone of voice, I knew I wasn’t getting any sleep tonight.

The sun was just starting to come up over the huge trees that surrounded us as we walked and I was grateful to the lady that was open way before dawn because if I had to stay in that ugly ass ruffled shirt one more day I was going to stab Ace for mentioning it every fucking day. We’d obviously stopped at other islands but nothing caught my eye as being my style, so I waited until I found something that I liked. It was a-whole-nother issue with getting Ace to put a fucking shirt on while we travelled. He fought me but I didn’t need to have the World Government chasing us before we were able to get together with the rest of the crew and usually Ace was the one that listened to reason but he had a real problem with covering Whitebeard’s mark. After promising that he didn’t have to wear a shirt after we reunited with everyone he shut up and finally listened.

He was tall enough to fit into some of Mihawk’s clothes and was dressed in a long black coat with a dark red shirt underneath, his shorts stuck in his bag while he donned a pair of tight-fitting pants that were trapped under his combat boots that looked much better on him than it ever had on the other bastard. I showed him just how much I liked the outfit the second we caught a steady current leaving Kuraigana on the small boat that Mihawk also gave us.

I couldn’t stand the fucker and I still didn’t understand why he bothered to help me at all since I was very clear in wanting his stupid ass dead, but I knew when to be grateful. I needed to thank him for a ton of things but the only thing the man got when we were leaving was a small bow of my head. Ace punched me in the arm for that, something about having manners just as bad as Luffy but I wasn’t about to give the bastard the satisfaction of a full-blown thank you.

Mihawk smirked at my attitude, which pissed me off even more, and waved us off as Ace gave him a “proper” thank you. Perona’s stupid ass was hanging off Mihawk crying about who knows what while Mihawk just watched her silently. I quirked my eyebrow at him when he’d wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her closer in a way to get her to stop crying. She didn’t find it weird in the least and curled further into him as she kept hiccupping.

I shook my head at the thought of those two again, remembering when Ace asked me if I really didn’t know they were fucking when I’d mentioned the weird action. I felt Ace tug on my elbow again as I made to turn down another road and I rolled my eyes at the man’s silent laugh that I felt. I leaned further into the touch that lingered on my elbow and ended up pressed close to Ace’s side as we walked through the still dark groove, the sunlight still not reaching the base of the trees. I felt the heat of small flames crawl along my hand, the warmth nice instead of painful and I could feel my heart start to pick up its pace and it was for two different reasons.

For one, being close to Ace always made my heart beat faster, just the _heat_ that came off the man could send my heart into a fucking fit, but there was the fact that I’d be seeing the crew for the first time in two years. Ace grabbed my hand and threaded his fingers in mine with a squeeze to my hand, and whether it was to comfort me or himself I didn’t know. If this was how he felt when the Whitebeard’s showed up, I didn’t blame him for being ghost white back then.

“What are you thinking of?” Ace’s quiet voice broke through the dawn air surrounding us. The island was just starting to stir but the area we were walking through was still dead silent, and I remember back from the first time I was on this island hearing that the smaller numbered groves were the more lawless. I guess even the wicked needed rest.

“I’m nervous to see the crew again,” I told him honestly, the rumble of my own voice leaving my chest tingling in the wake of the words. They were true but it was still weird feeling so at ease to actually voice my thoughts. I’d usually kept any and all feelings or emotions to myself even when someone asked, but with Ace, I’d gotten so at ease and it felt so natural to tell him things that I found that I could tell him these things.

“Why?” he asked in return as our feet kept us moving.

I just shrugged my shoulders in response, not really knowing why I was nervous to see them again and let my feet keep on the cobbled path that led through all the groves. Ace stayed silent after that, just letting his presence fill the space and I could feel my heart start to settle down. Ace had a way of calming people, I remembered how Perona would spaz out about something and Ace was always able to calm the maniac down. He could be a raging fire when needed or he could be as gentle as the soft sway of flames in a breeze, the thought that fire could be something gentle was outrageous until you paired it together with the man.

It wasn’t long after that we were pushing our way out of Shakky’s bar again after Rayleigh told us where we could find the Sunny. I was fucking beaming that we were the first ones to reach the island, after all the shit the crew talks about my sense of direction, I’m not letting them fucking forget this one. The one time it mattered I was the first one to get here, ha! Some of them were going to be pissed. Ace rolled his eyes when I explained that to him after he asked me why I was practically strutting around.

“You only got here first because I was with you Zoro~” the man sang my name just to piss me off. I cut a glare to him as we walked through the groves to number 41, it was a short distance from the bar and I was practically prancing through the paths, sticking close to Ace’s side so the man couldn’t kill my mood by having to redirect me.

“I would have still gotten here first even if you weren’t with me,” I grumbled at him. He gave me a disbelieving stare as we were walked and he pushed up next to me.

“I’m surprised at how we made it first with how many times we had to change headings because you were distracting me,” he said in hushed tones right in my ear. I felt myself tense up at his tone my mind immediately supplying memories of said distractions.

“Like I was the only one!” I told him in an almost offended tone, giving the man my full attention as we walked. I wasn’t going to take the blame for something that was most definitely _mostly_ Ace’s fault, to begin with, and especially since it has to do with directions!

“We had to change course one time because of me, all the other times were your fault,” I told him with a deadly serious tone, my eye trained on him just waiting for the man to deny it. He stopped in his tracks and I turned to stop in front of him just waiting.

“Shut up,” he said as he pushed me back to press against something hard and sturdy, his lips finding mine immediately.

I wasn’t totally shocked with the suddenness of the kiss, Ace seemed to like the action at whatever moment he was feeling like he wanted it. I was surprised when he hiked my legs up to his waist and whatever I was leaning on rocked, my hands finding a grip on his shoulder and threaded in his hair for balance. His tongue distracted me enough to let him worry about us falling over and just enjoyed the moment until I heard the sloshing. I didn’t put two and two together fast but I knew only one thing sounded like that and I felt my heart jump at realizing what exactly I was leaning against. Pulling away from Ace I saw his smug smirk at how breathless I was, and I quickly jerked my neck up to get a good look.

I saw the oak colored boards that made up Sunny’s hull and I felt my chest tighten a bit, knowing I’d never mistake her for any other ship. Ace let me down and I couldn’t help but take steps back to see the huge ship, trying to get a glimpse of the headpiece. I didn’t know I could climb up the steps of the Sunny so fast, the bubble surrounding the outside not deterring me at all (I didn’t even notice the shit was there until it hit me in the face). It felt weird being on the deck of the ship again after so long and even weirder was seeing Ace standing on the grassy lawn.

He was looking around and sliding his hand along the wooden surfaces of the mast, bench, railing, anything really. I leaned against the railing of the stairs leading up to the helm and watched him, the scene of Ace on the Sunny something I didn’t think was going to happen. There was so much that happened in the two years that we’d been together that it seemed impossible that it was such a peaceful moment because this could have been so much worse. Ace could have been on the way to his own funeral as his first time on Sunny.

My jaw clenched at the unwanted thought that popped into existence by itself, the hand that was relaxing on the grips of my swords grasped them tightly and I suddenly felt the need to protect _this_. I didn’t realize I was spaced out until I felt Ace’s hand gently touch my elbow and slide smoothly up to my bicep, my eyes immediately snapping up to look at him.

“You alright?” he asked in a tone that suggested that he was trying to dispel the unpleasant feeling that suddenly came over me.

“Yeah,” I told him as I felt the tension leave me and my shoulders visibly dropped. He smiled at me and asked me to give him the grand tour and I told him to wait for Franky and have him do it since he could show him all of Sunny’s cool stuff. He pouted but it was wiped off his face fast as it was replaced with a sinful smirk.

“How about you just show me where you sleep?” he said in an innocent tone but his body gave the opposite impression. I grinned back at him and was about to take him up on the offer until I heard a strangled sound behind us.

“How the fuck did you make it here first shitty marimo?!” that sentence alone was the best shit I’ve ever heard come out of his mouth and I turned around to look at him with a nonchalant smirk.

“I was so worried when I saw that article!” the orange-haired girl said as she hugged Ace. Over the last few days, everyone was slowly trickling in, first going to see Rayleigh and then heading to the ship.

With Nami, Usopp, and Chopper getting here earlier in the afternoon the only person missing was Luffy, which is something I should have expected. The second Chopper and Usopp had seen Ace the reindeer glomped him and started bawling his eyes out, Usopp not too far behind him. It felt weird and good as everyone started coming back home, Sanji had _obviously_ been the first of the crew to show up with Robin and Franky only a day behind him. The curly brow was over the moon at seeing Robin again and almost died from blood loss the fucking idiot.

Ace ended up getting his tour of the Sunny when Franky got wind that he wanted to see the ship. The huge cyborg went crazy when Ace had told him that it was similarly built to The Moby Dick and he shot rapid-fire questions about the ship at Ace. It was hilarious seeing Ace being overwhelmed by the amount and speed of the questions, eventually, he told Franky that he’d just have to see it for himself and ask the shipwrights on board. It wasn’t until Robin was able to calm him down that Ace was able to escape all the questions and Robin gave him a hug.

“Even though I haven’t met you I feel like I know you already. Sabo sends his love,” she told him quietly. The silence that fell was suffocating until he broke out in a huge smile, a few hiccupping breaths leaving him as he asked her if she could give him the den den mushi number later.

“Don’t worry, he was very adamant that he had to come to see Luffy soon, what a surprise for him that he’ll get to see both of you,” she said with a smile that lit up her face.

I’d missed them all and it was a weight off my chest at every person that showed up; I felt like my failure to protect them was less and less heavy. It was huge when a week later Nami, Usopp and Chopper finally got to the ship, Brook having gotten there three days ahead of them and at seeing the two biggest cowards in our crew home safe _really_ helped me put our first visit to Sabody behind me. We were ushered into the kitchen for an early dinner by Sanji, the dumbass too excited to be able to cook for “the girls” again, like we didn’t know that he liked feeding all of us. I felt Ace’s heat before I felt the man press into my side.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked as we sat at the table waiting for Sanji to bring us food, the rest of the crew talking about randomness, not wanting to share too much about our time apart until Luffy was here.

I turned to see that Ace was staring down at me with worry, his eyebrows tugged down a bit and his expression a bit serious. It always freaked me out how he could always read my moods but I’d learned that he was very intuitive despite being related to Luffy. I didn’t want to lie to him but I didn’t want to put my business out there with everyone around, but they were all focused on their conversations so maybe they wouldn’t hear?

“I’m glad that everyone is here, it makes me failing last time we were here less of a big deal,” I told him honestly but of course it was in that fucking second that everyone decided to shut their mouths.

The mood in the room darkened and even Sanji stopped his movement of serving food onto the plates. Everyone was looking at me or down at the table and I could see on everyone’s face that they wanted to say something. It was no one’s job in the crew to keep everyone safe but as the first mate and next strongest on the ship after Luffy, everyone knew that it came down to me. Luffy was always going to be Luffy and rush headfirst into taking down the big boss, but me? I was the person that made sure all these idiots stayed alive _and I **couldn’t** do that._

 **“** But babe, because of that you all got a lot stronger and if you hadn’t been separated, I probably would be dead right along with Oyaji,” Ace said without missing a beat. The pet name got a few confused looks and I guess we’d have to explain that to everyone when Luffy got here but the awkwardness was gone.

“What do you mean by that Ace-san?” Robin asked, skillfully avoiding the pity party I was having and moving the conversation in a direction I still didn’t fucking like.

“Zoro here saved my life, and it wouldn’t have been possible if he hadn’t been sent to the island he was at,” Ace said simply as if the situation had been so fucking simple.

“Zoro? **_Ace?_** ” a new voice wobbled out. A huge thud was heard and everyone turned their attention to the door that no one heard open. There Luffy was, a fluffy hood pulled over his head and a gigantic bag planted by his feet.

“Hey there Luff,” Ace said is the cheeriest voice I’d ever heard him use. There was no delay as the captain slingshotted himself at his brother, the two hit the floor hard. Luffy was sobbing and the only thing I could make out was “I thought you were gonna be killed” which had Ace laughing loudly, patting the other’s head trying to calm his brother.

“Stupid, things that are forged in fire are hard to kill!” Ace laughed loud as he bear-hugged Luffy back, but Ace’s smoky grey eyes found mine, making sure I knew that.

**Author's Note:**

> DELETED SCENE:  
> I rewrote/took these out because I didn't like the flow they created.
> 
> This one was as Ace is kissing Zoro on the beach:
> 
> I wasn’t stupid enough not to connect all the clues given to me. All the looks and words I brushed off before and the small touches and the fighting over the bed only to end up tangled together. The words that Marco told me earlier making sense and they gave me confidence.
> 
> And this was just as Zoro is carrying Ace back to the Whitebeards "campsite":
> 
> The ravenette was pouting as he was toted along back to the sight of the impromptu party and campout to hopefully catch some sleep soon. I jumped as I felt lips ghosting the back of my neck and turned my head to look at him as much as I could from this position. He smirked at me mischievously as he kept mouthing my neck having me squirm, especially when he started roaming his hands across my chest. I gripped his thighs hard in an attempt to get him to stop but in all honesty, it made him double his efforts. By the time we got back to where the new Whitebeard crew were all passed out Ace had me in a very uncomfortable state. My neck probably red and marked with all the attention he’d been giving it and his hands still rubbed at my pecs, down my arms, roaming my hair and at one point softly pinched at my nipples.  
>  I let him slip off my back once we were by the fire again, figuring it was the fastest way to get dry and I shucked off my soaked shirt, haramaki, and boots. Ace gave the dying fire another burst of life and sat bonelessly against the raised edge of the fire pit. He reached his hand up to me in an invitation and this time I was the one to sit on the man, mostly because I was feeling a bit out of character and wanted to feel a bit less vulnerable. Ace wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me with a bit of returning strength to rest more snuggly against him. Just when I felt his lips press to my neck once again, I felt the whole weight of his head press into my shoulder.  
>  My eyebrows scrunched together in confusion until I heard him start snoring and I couldn’t hold the eye roll from leaving me. I just settled in, letting him engulf me as much as possible and let the warmth lull me to sleep, too drunk to care too much right now.


End file.
